F234.
The Future of Queer Aesthetics: How to Write Authentic LGBTQ+ Characters
Friday, March 10, 2023
3:20 pm to 4:35 pm
This panel will feature established queer authors and teachers of creative writing discussing the current state of queer aesthetics and how to write about, critique, and revise works about LGBTQ+ characters and experiences in the workshop setting. What does it mean to create an authentic queer character on the page? In an era when queer issues are simultaneously progressing and at risk of reactionary backsliding, how do we confront otherness in our work and the work of our students?
Participants
Venita Blackburn's works have appeared in thenewyorker.com, Harper’s, The Paris Review, and others. Books include Black Jesus and Other Superheroes (2017) winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize and How to Wrestle a Girl (2021), finalist for a Lamda literary prize. She is an associate professor.
Venita Blackburn's works have appeared in thenewyorker.com, Harper’s, The Paris Review, and others. Books include Black Jesus and Other Superheroes (2017) winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize and How to Wrestle a Girl (2021), finalist for a Lamda literary prize. She is an associate professor.
Joseph Cassara is the George & Judy Marcus Chair of Creative Writing and assistant professor at San Francisco State University. He is the author of The House of Impossible Beauties, which won the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction.
Chen Chen is the author of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities. The recipient of fellowships from the NEA and United States Artists, he teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at Stonecoast and New England College.
