Muse & the Marketplace 2019

Every writer struggles sometimes with the blank page-- but what happens when they're not just struggling with themselves or the words, but with the wider world's reaction to their writing? When, for example, their memoir includes content rumored to be considered anathema in the publishing industry? Or when they're writing an investigative journalism piece-- and realize they need to humanize a person who did horrible things? How can writers at once embrace making readers uncomfortable-- and yet make them keep reading? How can we transcend the safe or accepted narratives, and tell urgent, risky, even unpopular ones-- and do it ethically?

Together we will read and discuss excerpts from nonfiction work that caused a stir and do short writing exercises to discover paths forward in our own work. As T.S. Eliot famously asked, "Dare I disturb the universe?" Together, we will dare.