Presented By: Zell Visiting Writers Series
Craft Lecture: Crowded Characters
Zell Visiting Writers Series
Login here (no pre-registration needed): http://tinyurl.com/ZellWriters23
Seats are limited and are offered on a first come, first served basis; please arrive early to secure a spot.
Zell Visiting Writers Series craft lectures are free and open to the public, and will be offered both virtually (via Zoom) and in person (in The Robert Hayden Conference Room, Angell Hall #3222). Please contact kimjulie@umich.edu with any questions or accommodation needs.
Of her lecture, Leslie says, "In writing characters—and writing ourselves as characters—how can we create figures on the page that are as complex as the people we meet and love and loathe in real life? How can we write every character so that she contains not just one self but many selves? If you think of every character as a guesthouse, who would all the guests be? Who are all the selves dwelling inside? This craft lecture will explore the construction of character as a dilemma (and thrill!) facing that fiction and nonfiction writers alike: When you write first-person narratives, how can you construct your own character on the page as something multiple, complex, and surprising? How can you make room for as many versions of yourself as possible—as many versions are necessary? How does paying close attention to experience—to any scene, any relationship, any memory—not just invite but demand this multiplicity of selfhood, in fiction and nonfiction alike: that every character be not one way, but many ways; that she want not just one thing, but many things; that she do something not for one reason, but for many reasons. How can we imagine every character not just as one version of herself but as many versions of herself, a crowded room full of many different figures: the ghosts of prior selves, the fantasies of future selves, the self in all its various relationships, a quicksilver presence transforming across roles and time."
Leslie S. Jamison is a New York Times bestselling author whose writing blends personal narrative, cultural criticism, and literary reportage. Her two essay collections, The Empathy Exams (2014) and Make It Scream, Make It Burn (2019) explore loneliness, intimacy, and the limits of shared feeling. Her critical memoir, The Recovering (2018), grapples with the relationships between addiction, creativity, and recovery; and her novel, The Gin Closet (2010), explores family estrangement across multiple generations. Her latest book, the memoir Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story, explores the intersections between caregiving, life ruptures, and the creative impulse.
A regular writer for The New Yorker magazine, Jamison has contributed to many publications including The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The New York Times Book Review, where she was a regular columnist for several years. Jamison has twice been a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award and a National Magazine Award; she was the guest editor for Best American Essays 2017. Jamison earned her MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and her PhD at Yale University before joining the Columbia University faculty in 2015, earning tenure in 2023.
For any questions about the event or to share accommodation needs, please email kimjulie@umich.edu--we are eager to help ensure this event is inclusive to you. The building, event space, and restrooms are wheelchair accessible. Diaper changing tables are available in nearby restrooms. Gender-inclusive restrooms are available on the second floor of the Museum, accessible via the stairs, or in nearby Hatcher Graduate Library (Floors 3, 4, 5, and 6). The Hatcher Library also offers a reflection room (4th Floor South Stacks), and a lactation room (Room 13W, an anteroom to the basement women's staff restroom, or Room 108B, an anteroom of the first floor women's restroom). ASL interpreters and CART services at in-person events are available upon request; please email kimjulie@umich.edu at least two weeks prior to the event, whenever possible, to allow time to arrange services.
U-M employees with a U-M parking permit may use the Church Street Parking Structure (525 Church St., Ann Arbor) or the Thompson Parking Structure (500 Thompson St., Ann Arbor). There is limited metered street parking on State Street and South University Avenue. The Forest Avenue Public Parking Structure (650 South Forest Ave., Ann Arbor) is five blocks away, and the parking rate is $1.20 per hour. All of these options include parking spots for individuals with disabilities.
Seats are limited and are offered on a first come, first served basis; please arrive early to secure a spot.
Zell Visiting Writers Series craft lectures are free and open to the public, and will be offered both virtually (via Zoom) and in person (in The Robert Hayden Conference Room, Angell Hall #3222). Please contact kimjulie@umich.edu with any questions or accommodation needs.
Of her lecture, Leslie says, "In writing characters—and writing ourselves as characters—how can we create figures on the page that are as complex as the people we meet and love and loathe in real life? How can we write every character so that she contains not just one self but many selves? If you think of every character as a guesthouse, who would all the guests be? Who are all the selves dwelling inside? This craft lecture will explore the construction of character as a dilemma (and thrill!) facing that fiction and nonfiction writers alike: When you write first-person narratives, how can you construct your own character on the page as something multiple, complex, and surprising? How can you make room for as many versions of yourself as possible—as many versions are necessary? How does paying close attention to experience—to any scene, any relationship, any memory—not just invite but demand this multiplicity of selfhood, in fiction and nonfiction alike: that every character be not one way, but many ways; that she want not just one thing, but many things; that she do something not for one reason, but for many reasons. How can we imagine every character not just as one version of herself but as many versions of herself, a crowded room full of many different figures: the ghosts of prior selves, the fantasies of future selves, the self in all its various relationships, a quicksilver presence transforming across roles and time."
Leslie S. Jamison is a New York Times bestselling author whose writing blends personal narrative, cultural criticism, and literary reportage. Her two essay collections, The Empathy Exams (2014) and Make It Scream, Make It Burn (2019) explore loneliness, intimacy, and the limits of shared feeling. Her critical memoir, The Recovering (2018), grapples with the relationships between addiction, creativity, and recovery; and her novel, The Gin Closet (2010), explores family estrangement across multiple generations. Her latest book, the memoir Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story, explores the intersections between caregiving, life ruptures, and the creative impulse.
A regular writer for The New Yorker magazine, Jamison has contributed to many publications including The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The New York Times Book Review, where she was a regular columnist for several years. Jamison has twice been a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award and a National Magazine Award; she was the guest editor for Best American Essays 2017. Jamison earned her MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and her PhD at Yale University before joining the Columbia University faculty in 2015, earning tenure in 2023.
For any questions about the event or to share accommodation needs, please email kimjulie@umich.edu--we are eager to help ensure this event is inclusive to you. The building, event space, and restrooms are wheelchair accessible. Diaper changing tables are available in nearby restrooms. Gender-inclusive restrooms are available on the second floor of the Museum, accessible via the stairs, or in nearby Hatcher Graduate Library (Floors 3, 4, 5, and 6). The Hatcher Library also offers a reflection room (4th Floor South Stacks), and a lactation room (Room 13W, an anteroom to the basement women's staff restroom, or Room 108B, an anteroom of the first floor women's restroom). ASL interpreters and CART services at in-person events are available upon request; please email kimjulie@umich.edu at least two weeks prior to the event, whenever possible, to allow time to arrange services.
U-M employees with a U-M parking permit may use the Church Street Parking Structure (525 Church St., Ann Arbor) or the Thompson Parking Structure (500 Thompson St., Ann Arbor). There is limited metered street parking on State Street and South University Avenue. The Forest Avenue Public Parking Structure (650 South Forest Ave., Ann Arbor) is five blocks away, and the parking rate is $1.20 per hour. All of these options include parking spots for individuals with disabilities.
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