F196. Beautiful Minds: Writing Mental Illness

D136, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Friday, March 29, 2019
12:00 pm to 1:15 pm

 

In the face of stigma and sensationalized representations of mental illness in the news and popular media, thoughtful writers can shed light on genuine experiences of mental illness. Five writers spanning the genres of fiction, CNF, and poetry will talk about why they’ve chosen to write on this subject, along with the challenges, risks, and opportunities they’ve encountered in doing so, and will share advice for other writers exploring mental illness in their own work.


Participants

Moderator:

David Ebenbach is the author of six books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, including the novel Miss Portland. He teaches Creative Writing and Literature at Georgetown University and is a project manager at Georgetown’s teaching center, the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship.

Angie Chuang is a nonfiction writer and an associate professor of journalism at University of Colorado Boulder. Her first book, The Four Words for Home, won an Independent Publishers Award. Her work has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Litro, The Asian American Literary Review, Vela, and others.

Katy Richey’s work has appeared in RattleCincinnati ReviewRHINO, and The Offing. She received an honorable mention for the 2015 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and she has received fellowships from Fine Arts Work Center, Maryland State Arts Council, and the Cave Canem Foundation.

Christopher Ankney is the author of one book, Hearsay, winner to the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize and finalist for the Ohioana Book Prize for Poetry. He serves as an editor for Washington Writers’ Publishing House. He is an Assistant Professor of English at College of Southern Maryland.

Jessie Chaffee's debut, Florence in Ecstasy, was an SF Chronicle Best Book of 2017 and is forthcoming in translation in five countries. She received a Fulbright grant to complete the novel and was the writer-in-residence at Florence University of the Arts. She is an editor at Words Without Borders.

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February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center