F146.
"Yes, And": A Bisexual Exploration of Genre
Friday, February 9, 2024
10:35 am to 11:50 am
The publishing world uses genre to classify creative output. As useful as these classifications can be, they also create silos within the literary world, systems that rely on exclusionary criteria. Bisexual writers—whose sexuality is shaped by a rejection of exclusionary rhetoric—may feel hemmed in by traditional genres and driven to experiment across genre boundaries by hybridizing aesthetics and subverting convention. This panel will explore the approaches bisexual writers bring to genre.
Participants
Rachel Cochran is the author of the novel The Gulf (HarperCollins, 2023) and associate editor of Machete, a literary creative nonfiction series at the Ohio State University Press. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at Marian University.
Katie Schmid is a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in poetry. Her debut book, Nowhere, was published by University of New Mexico Press. She is an assistant professor of English at Ursinus College.
Zaina Arafat is a queer Palestinian writer and the author of You Exist Too Much, which won a 2021 Lambda Literary Award and was named Roxane Gay's favorite book of 2020. She was also named a Champion of Pride by The Advocate. She teaches at Barnard College and is working on her second book.
SJ Sindu is the award-winning author of the novels Blue-Skinned Gods and Marriage of a Thousand Lies, along with The Goth House Experiment (forthcoming short story collection) and the graphic novels Shakti and Talk Water (forthcoming). Sindu is an assistant professor of creative writing at VCU.
Katharine Coldiron is the author of Ceremonials and Junk Film. Her essays and criticism have appeared in Ms., Conjunctions, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and elsewhere. She earned a BA in film studies and philosophy from Mount Holyoke and an MA in English from California State University Northridge.
