July Third Thursday: “Outside the Box: Writing in More than One Genre or Category”
July 18, 2024 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM CDT
Free
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Many of us begin our writing lives as generalists—journaling, writing letters and emails, and composing essays for class. But, at some point, once a project takes shape or an obsession takes hold, we pick a lane. (Or, when it comes to getting our work published, a lane is assigned to us.) We become novelists or memoirists or poets. We write fiction or nonfiction. What happens when we veer out of that lane, when we start writing outside the box?
We’ll talk with three authors, including Nick Flynn (poet, memoirist, playwright), Courtney Maum (fiction, memoir, nonfiction writer), and Reyes Ramirez (short fiction writer, poet, essayist), who’ve done just that. We’ll hear from them how jumping between genres and categories has enriched and challenged their creative lives and careers as writers.
This conversation will be moderated by WLT Program Director Sarah Renee Beach.
Buy our panelists’ books and support indie bookstores! You can find our July Third Thursday booklist here.
Featured Presenter(s)
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Nick Flynn (writer, playwright, poet) has published twelve books, most recently Low (2023), a poetry collection, This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire (2020), a hybrid memoir; and Stay: threads, collaborations, and conversations (2020), which documents twenty-five years of his collaborations with artists, filmmakers, and composers. He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Library of Congress, and is on the creative writing faculty at the University of Houston. His acclaimed memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (2004), was made into a film starring Robert DeNiro, and has been translated into fifteen languages. -
Courtney Maum is the author of five books, including the groundbreaking publishing guide that Vanity Fair recently named one of the ten best books for writers, BEFORE AND AFTER THE BOOK DEAL and the memoir THE YEAR OF THE HORSES, chosen by The Today Show as the best read for mental health awareness. A writing coach, director of the writing workshop “Turning Points,” and educator, Courtney's mission is to help people hold on to the joy of art-making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands. Passionate about literary citizenship, Courtney sits on the advisory councils of The Authors Guild and The Rumpus and runs a bestselling Substack on publishing conundrums. You can sign up for her weekly newsletter and online masterclasses at CourtneyMaum.com -
Reyes Ramirez (he/him) is a Houstonian, writer, educator, curator, and organizer of Mexican and Salvadoran descent. He authored the short story collection The Book of Wanderers (2022), a 2023 Young Lions Fiction Award Finalist, from University of Arizona Press’ Camino del Sol series and the poetry collection El Rey of Gold Teeth (2023) from Hub City Press, a finalist for the 2024 Texas Institute of Letters Award for Best First Book of Poetry. His latest curatorial project, The Houston Artist Speaks Through Grids, explores the use of grids in contemporary Houston art, literature, history, and politics. Reyes has been honored as a 2020 CantoMundo Fellow, 2021 Interchange Artist Grant Fellow, 2022 Crosstown Arts Writer in Residence, 2023 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow, 2023 Dobie Paisano Fellow, 2024 Speculative Play and Just Futurities Fellow and awarded grants from the Houston Arts Alliance, Poets & Writers, and The Warhol Foundation’s Idea Fund.
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