R126B. Long vs. Short: Nonfiction Storytelling in the Digital Age

Room L100 H&I, Lower Level
Thursday, April 9, 2015
9:00 am to 10:15 am

 

Short-short writing is in vogue, and it's a great match for online attention spans. But what gets lost when essays and other kinds of nonfiction storytelling are limited by word count? This diverse panel of editors and writers will focus on the pros and cons of flash nonfiction. Some like it long, others like it short, and all will address whether it's OK to say goodbye to the traditional essay. Join the debate about what's happening to literary nonfiction in digital formats—and why it matters.


Participants

Moderator:

Martha Nichols is the editor-in-chief of Talking Writing, an online literary magazine. Her personal essays and features have been widely published in journals such as Utne Reader, Salon, and the Christian Science Monitor. She teaches in the journalism program at Harvard University Extension School.

Alan Davis, who has published three books of short fiction, is senior editor at New Rivers Press. He co-edited American Fiction for ten years and teaches at Minnesota State University and in the Fairfield University MFA program. He has received Fulbrights in creative writing to Slovenia and Indonesia.

Kelly Sundberg's essays have been published in Guernica, [PANK], Mid-American Review, Quarterly West, the Los Angeles Review, Slice magazine, and elsewhere. She has had work listed as notable in Best American Essays 2013. She is a PhD candidate in creative nonfiction at Ohio University.

Mai Neng Moua is the founder of Paj Ntaub Voice, the Hmong literary arts journal where she published more than 200 emerging Hmong writers and artists. She is also the editor of Bamboo Among the Oaks, the first Hmong American anthology. Her awards include the Bush Artist Fellowship.

Richard Hoffman is the author of six books: Half the House: A Memoir; the poetry collections Without Paradise, Gold Star Road, and Emblem; Interference & Other Stories; and most recently, the memoir Love & Fury. He is senior writer in residence at Emerson College.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center