On Wednesday, October 11, as part of the Fall for the Book literary festival, Mason’s MFA faculty writers presented the inaugural event of Life on the Line, a series of talks and readings that promises to become an important component of literary and intellectual life at Mason. The series focuses on how writers through their lives and work affect social, political, and cultural realities.
“Writers change the world in all kinds of ways, and today, more than ever, we need to be speaking to each other about how this happens,” says Bill Miller, the director of Mason’s MFA and BFA programs in creative writing. “The talks and readings that the Life on the Line series will host over the next few years is just one way that we are emphasizing this important component of the writing life in Mason’s community of writers.”
The inaugural panel, Life on the Line: Migration, Nation, and the Word, featured five writers who confront national and cultural barriers in their works. Alumna poet Danielle Badra facilitated the conversation between visiting poet Tarfia Faizullah (who also read from her award-winning book Seam at Mason the same night), Mason’s own novelist and memoirist Courtney Brkic and poet Vivek Narayanan, and DC area children’s book author and illustrator Juana Medina. The panel and audience together examined what it means to write and move across national borders, touching on questions of translation, cultural identity, political barriers, influence across nations, and more.
The MFA faculty is at work on more events in this series for coming semesters.
October 19, 2017
