R137. The Politics of Queering Characters

Marquis Salon 1 & 2, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Two
Thursday, February 9, 2017
10:30 am to 11:45 am

 

For queer writers, creating a queer character is a political act that involves conscious decisions and unexpected obstacles. How can we tell when our characters are too queer or not queer enough? What other complications may arise when we try to define our audience and their expectations? How do we choose to out ourselves and our characters in our work? This panel considers the politics of queering characters within fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.


Participants

Moderator:

Samantha Tetangco has an MFA in fiction. Her stories, essays, and poetry have been published in a number of literary magazines, including the Sun, Gargoyle, Phoebe, Gertrude, and others. She currently teaches writing at the University of California Merced.

Marisa P. Clark teaches creative writing at the University of New Mexico. She has published creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry in a variety of literary journals. Her essay "Here Come the Brides" was named a Notable Essay in the 2011 Best American Essays.

Lisa D. Chavez has published two books of poetry, Destruction Bay and In An Angry Season, and has had essays included in several anthologies, including The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity, and An Angle of Vision: Women Writers on Their Poor and Working Class Roots.

Lori Ostlund’s story collection The Bigness of the World received the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award. Her second book, a novel, is entitled After the Parade and was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

Jervon Perkins is currently a graduate student of the Butler University MFA program. His main works focus on the African American/multiracial male experience at the crossroads of queerness and mental illness. Other works focus on religious thought and popular culture.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center