Three influential alumni authors returned to Northwestern to share prominent works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, and to critique current students’ work at the 17th annual Writers Fest held in Scott Hall from Monday to Wednesday.
Assistant Director of Creative Writing and English Colin Pope said the three-day festival gave students the opportunity to connect to the larger literary world and served as a culmination of their year’s work.
The festival started with a reading by Mary South (Weinberg ’04), author of a short story collection titled “You Will Never Be Forgotten.”
“It means so much to be able to be in the place where I learned so much, and hopefully impart some knowledge in turn,” South said.
The next readings featured Creative Writing and American Literature at Wagner College Prof. Eric Dean Wilson (Weinberg ’09), author of “After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort,” and Tracy Fuad (Weinberg ’11), author of the book of poems, “PORTAL.”
English Prof. Daisy Hernández said many pieces shared at the festival explored the theme of technology and how it has changed humanity. She highlighted Wilson’s work about air conditioning and the climate and South’s fiction stories that detail humans’ reliance on technology.
The authors also met with select undergraduates in creative writing to critique their work and hold craft talks to answer questions about the writing process. Pope said technology continued to be a prominent theme through these parts of the fest as well.
“All of the craft talks seem to have focused a little bit on technology and the writer’s place within the current climate of both politics and technology and what that means for our readership,” Pope said.
The event also offered opportunities for reconnection. Many of the faculty who attended the readings taught the authors as students, Hernández said.
English Prof. Rachel Webster had Fuad as a student 18 years ago. She said she remembers a conversation in her office when Fuad talked to her about the unique property of sound in poetry, an element that she still notices Fuad addressing in her current pieces.
“When I first read ‘about:blank’ I had one of those awakening moments of thinking, ‘Oh, we can do this in poetry?’” Webster said. “And then immediately thinking, ‘We should be doing this in poetry.’”
Webster said Fuad’s book “about:blank” widened the field of poetry to include technology by capturing the shuffling speed of consciousness lived both in real time and online.
Wilson said it was an honor to be able to spend three days sharing his work, talking about writing and interacting with students.
“We do live in a time and a place where creative writing and the arts in general are not so fully appreciated, which makes these events so important,” Hernández said.
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