T230B.
Centering Displaced Narratives: A Craft Perspective
Thursday, March 24, 2022
3:20 pm to 4:35 pm
Viet Thanh Nguyen writes, “True justice is creating a world” where displaced people can “tell their stories and be heard, rather than be dependent on a writer or a representative.” This panel examines representational strategies for writing the stories of refugees and displaced people as justly as possible. The panelists focus on developing a cowriting relationship, interviewing around trauma, structuring narratives, challenging stereotypes, and creating space in a crowded publishing field.
Participants
Jessica Goudeau is the author of After the Last Border, which won the Lukas Book Prize, and We Were Illegal (forthcoming). She's written for the New York Times, the Atlantic, Washington Post, and Catapult, among other places. She teaches nonfiction at Sewanee School of Letters.
Jenna Krajeski is a journalist and author with work in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and VQR. She is the co-author with Nobel laureate Nadia Murad of Ms. Murad's memoir, The Last Girl, and with Mondiant Dogon of Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds, Mr. Dogon's memoir of living as a refugee.
Ahmed M. Badr is an Iraqi American poet and social entrepreneur. He is the founder and executive director of Narratio, author of While the Earth Sleeps We Travel, a National Geographic Young Explorer, and an EdM Candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Edafe Okporo is an author, speaker, refugee, LGBTQ rights activist, and founder the Pont LLC. He is from Nigeria and has been featured on major media outlets such as Now This News, the Nation Magazine, Yahoo Lifestyle, NPR radio, WNYC, Art Newspaper and GLAAD Media.
Mondiant Nshimiyimana Dogon is a Congolese author, human rights activist, and refugee ambassador. Born into a Congolese Tutsi family in Bagogwe tribe in North Kivu province, he was forced to leave his home village, Bikenke, because of Rwanda Genocide that spilled over into Congo.
