F240. The Curtain, the Threshold, and the Door: Paratext in Book-Length Projects

F149, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Friday, March 29, 2019
1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

 

It's an opening quote, a back-cover blurb, cover catchphrase, query letter, synopsis, and the very title of the work itself—paratexts such as these invite potential readers into a primary text by provoking curiosity. As authors, how can we mold and manipulate paratext without compromising a book's emotional core? In this panel, we consider paratext as a creative tool and "fertilizer" that supports a book commercially and creatively, with advice on choosing and writing your paratext.


Participants

Moderator:

Anne-Marie Yerks is the author of Dream Junkies and teaches in the Southern New Hampshire online MFA program. Her work has appeared in Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Marie Claire, and in literary journals like Juked and Streetlight

Christine Flanagan, MFA, is an Associate Professor of English at University of the Sciences whose teaching includes environmental humanities and travel-based creative writing courses. She is the author of The Letters of Flannery O'Connor and Caroline Gordon.

Tyler Dilts's work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The LA Review of Books, and The Best American Mystery Stories. He is the author of the novels A King of Infinite Space, The Pain Scale, and A Cold and Broken Hallelujah. He teaches in Long Beach, California.

Alexander Cendrowski is a recent graduate of the University of South Florida's MFA program. Alex's manuscript, The Aquanaut Hotel, employs juxtaposition between independent textual and graphic narratives to highlight the reader’s inherent construction of meaning and reality.

Katharine Beutner is a writer, teacher, and organizer. She teaches at the College of Wooster; previously, she taught at UH Mānoa. Her novel Alcestis won the 2011 Edmund White Award, and her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of BooksThe ToastPublic BooksTriQuarterly, and other publications.

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