F160.
What Bookshelf Do I Belong On?: The Challenges of Literary Categorization
Friday, February 9, 2024
10:35 am to 11:50 am
For a book to make it to market, it must be assigned to a recognizable genre or category. Writers of unconventional stories that blur genres/integrate disparate subject matter face an uphill battle within the mainstream literary ecosystem (agents and publishers) that tends to reject projects that defy labels as they’re considered unmarketable. If you’ve ever found your book shelved in the wrong section; had trouble finding comps; or been advised to rewrite in another genre—this panel is for you.
Participants
Grace Loh Prasad writes about belonging and diaspora. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Longreads, Catapult, KHÔRA, and elsewhere. Her memoir The Translator’s Daughter will be published in 2024 by Machete, an imprint of Mad Creek Books/The Ohio State University Press.
Joy Castro is the author of four novels, a short fiction collection, an essay collection, and a memoir. She edited the craft anthology Family Trouble: Memoirists on the Hazards and Rewards of Revealing Family and serves as the founding editor of Machete, a series in innovative literary nonfiction.
Simon Han is the author of the novel Nights When Nothing Happened (Riverhead, 2020). His stories and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Aperture, Virginia Quarterly Review, the Texas Observer, and elsewhere. He lives in the Greater Boston area and teaches creative writing at Tufts University.
Jan Stinchcomb is the author of the novel Verushka, as well as two novellas and a chapbook published by independent presses. Her work, intended for an adult audience, sits at the intersection of literary, fairy tale, and horror.
