T115.
The Internet and Creativity: Fatal Distraction or Turbo Charger?
Thursday, March 9, 2023
9:00 am to 10:15 am
Ever since Jonathan Franzen warned that the internet was such a murderer of creativity that he claimed he Krazy Glued the ethernet port on his laptop shut, debates have ranged from ascetics abstaining completely to publishers and agents claiming a modern writer's career is not viable without a "platform" of social media engagement. Three published writers and moderator discuss how the internet has helped make or break their careers.
Participants
Gabe Hudson
Julia Fierro is the author of the novels The Gypsy Moth Summer & Cutting Teeth, and Santa Monica & The Last Party (as Cassidy Lucas). She founded Sackett St. Writers Workshop in 2002 (10,000+ writers worldwide) and has published essays on writing with mental illness in New York Times and Poets & Writers.
Rebecca Makkai's fifth book, I Have Some Questions for You, is out in early 2023. Her novel The Great Believers was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; it won the LA Times Book Prize, the Carnegie Medal, and the Stonewall Award. She is artistic director of StoryStudio Chicago.
Marie Myung-Ok Lee is the author of the novel The Evening Hero, Finding My Voice (YA). Fiction has appeared in Kenyon Review, FiveChapters, TriQuarterly, Witness, Joyland, and Guernica. Nonfiction has appeared in The Atlantic, Paris Review, and New York Times. She teaches fiction at Columbia.
