F222.
The Subtle Ethics of Writing About Others
Friday, March 25, 2022
3:20 pm to 4:35 pm
Nonfiction writers often grapple with how to write ethically about others. Memoirists, biographers, essayists, journalists: all worry about hurting loved ones, misrepresenting those of differing cultures, or disrespecting nonhuman nature in their work. This panel explores the various ways writers navigate these tricky issues. Panelists and audience will share their experiences of developing moral standards in this area with the aim of expanding our vision of the challenges and possibilities.
Participants
Helena de Bres is associate professor of philosophy at Wellesley. Her creative writing has appeared in the Point, the New York Times, Aeon, the Los Angeles Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and the Rumpus. Her book, Artful Truths: The Philosophy of Memoir, was published in 2021.
Courtney Kersten is the author of Daughter in Retrograde. She teaches creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is at work on a hybrid biography about the American astrologer Linda Goodman.
Gina Arnold is a writer and professor of rhetoric and creative nonfiction. She holds a PhD from Stanford and is the author of four books, including Route 666: On the Road to Nirvana (1993) and Half a Million Strong (2018). She recently coedited the Oxford Handbook of Punk.
Elizabeth Miki Brini
