S150.
Writing Trauma: Nonlinear Challenges of Survival. A Perspective of Women Writers
Saturday, February 10, 2024
10:35 am to 11:50 am
As survivors of traumatic events, writers often engage with the art of writing as a form of therapy. What is the relation between testimonial writing, the craft of producing a text that connects with readers, and the praxis of healing? To explore this question, a panel of women writers will discuss memory and healing. Through their stories, they will challenge biased assumptions about the seemingly harmonious relationship between writing and healing.
Participants
Claudia Morales (1988) is an author and scholar from Chiapas, Mexico. Assistant professor of creative writing at Dominican University of California. Her debut novel, No Habrá Retorno (2015) won the National Rosario Castellanos Prize for Novels. Her work has been supported by the Fulbright Program.
Britta Stromeyer Esmail, author of award-winning children’s book Raina’s (UN) Happy Birthday. Her book Look at Me. Who Do You See? (2024) was endorsed by Maia Kobabe and author and TLC star Jazz Jennings. Kirkus Reviews praised it as “A playful allegory of self-expression and acceptance.” Member RAINN Speakers Bureau.
Jo Blair Cipriano is a winner of an Academy of American Poets Prize and has received support from Tin House, the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, and Brooklyn Poets. Jo is an MFA candidate at the University of Arizona, where they are a Southwest Field Studies in Writing Fellow.
Devi S. Laskar has worked as a newspaper reporter covering crime and politics in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, and Hawaii. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and an MA in South Asian studies from UIUC, is a published poet, and her debut novel was published in 2019.
