ASU lit conference to examine how creative writing can create stronger communities
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In times of societal unrest, taking the time to come together and share our stories can be a powerful step toward righting the ship.
In the words of Alberto Rios, Arizona’s inaugural poet laureate and director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing: “Writing is our way forward.”
Arizona State University is facilitating that path with this year's Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference, set to take place Oct. 10–12 at the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus.
Conference details
View the conference schedule on the Piper Center website.
A single day pass is $150. Discounted rates are available for seniors, Arizona educators, people with disabilities and military personnel. ASU students, faculty and staff are eligible for a special rate of $50.
The conference spans a variety of genres and forms — fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, memoir, screenwriting, young adult — with sessions on editing, publishing, the business of writing and the writing life. It will touch upon such topics as food writing, climate change, graphic novels, Indigeneity, disability studies, hybrid forms, social justice and more.
Hosted by the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at ASU, this year’s conference offers 95 workshops, classes, readings and panels, as well as craft lectures by more than 100 presenters, including local writers.
“The conference theme for this year is ‘Craft. Culture. Community,’” said Sheila Black, assistant director of the Piper Center. “We want to focus on storytelling as a community-building activity and also offer something different from the world’s headlines — a space for reflection and imagination.”
This year’s lineup features keynote speakers and award-winning poets Nicole Sealey (“The Ferguson Report: An Erasure”) and John Murillo (“Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry”). Sealey and Murillo will discuss how by allowing space for unbridled thought, creative writing can and does make things happen in the world, and how we can view our art as a way of forging stronger communities.
Other featured writers taking part in the conference include Arizona poet Sherwin Bitsui, novelist Debra Magpie Earling, poet and novelist Phillip B. Williams, poets Cindy Juyoung Ok and Diana Khoi Nguyen, and memoirist Deborah Taffa. The conference will also feature readings and panels by members of national literary organizations CantoMundo (now housed at Piper), Letras Latinas and Kundiman SW.
Rios will also be teaching at the conference.
“Every pencil is filled with a book. When writers gather, pencils talk,” Rios said. “... We can each contribute something good to the world.”
Christie Swedbergh, associate director of the Piper Center, said it’s the second year running the conference after a hiatus due to COVID-19.
“Last year’s conference was a great success, and we learned many writers have missed these community connections,” Swedbergh said. “That’s why this conference is so unique and special — it allows for intimate connections between writers of all levels so that they really feel like a part of the community.
ASU Professor Sally Ball has been attending the conference for over two decades. She will be giving a reading with other conference faculty poets and will also give a talk about collaboration across art forms, based on her work with award-winning Czech gravurist Jan Vičar on their large-scale limited-edition artist’s book, “HOLD.”
“The Desert Nights, Rising Stars Conference stands out because the Piper Center puts a lot of emphasis on emerging writers — both conference fellows and ASU MFA students as well,” said Ball, an English professor, author and director of creative writing for ASU’s Department of English. “We also have a lot of veteran writers who return to DNRS year after year, and they often turn to each other, which is nice.”
Ball said attending the conference also has another added benefit for her.
“When you are a teacher, the big risk is that you’re lulled by expertise — you can get set in your opinions,” Ball said. “At events like this, we all go to each other’s lectures and hear a wide array of writers, and it’s expansive, provocative. It’s like being a student all over again.”
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