OPEN CALL:Nonfiction Writers Series

Pacific Northwest College of Art’s MA in Critical Studies program presents the Spring 2018 Creative Nonfiction Writers Series, bringing a diverse group of writers and thinkers to PNCA for free public lectures. Lecturers include award-winning writers Maggie Nelson, author of Bluets and The Argonauts, and Walidah Imarisha, author of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements and Another World is Possible.

Schedule:

Roberta Hunte: 24/1/18, 6:30pm

Roberta Hunte screens Sista in the Brotherhood with discussion to follow. Dr. Hunte is an educator, facilitator, consultant, and cultural worker. She is an Assistant Professor in Black Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Portland State University. She is a collaborator and producer of a play, My Walk Has Never Been Average, and a short film, Sista in the Brotherhood, both informed by her research on black tradeswomen. She is co-chair of the board for OPAL, Environmental Justice and the co-chair of Trimet’s Transit Equity Advisory Committee.

Shayla Lawson: 20/2/18, 6pm

Shayla Lawson leads a workshop on Maggie Nelson’s Bluets (2009). Shayla Lawson’s work has appeared in print and online at Tin House, GRAMMA, ESPN, Salon, The Offing, Guernica, Colorado Review, Barrelhouse, and MiPOesias. She is the author of A Speed Education in Human Being, PANTONE, and the forthcoming, I Think I’m Ready to See Frank Ocean. She is a 2017 Oregon Literary and MacDowell Colony Fellow, and a member of The Affrilachian Poets.

Jerry McGill : 27/2/18, 6pm

In his book, Dear Marcus, Jerry McGill addresses the man who shot him and the result is an inspiring narrative about the moments in life that shape us. He has traveled the globe mentoring disabled children and sharing the experiences in his life that evolved from his transformative encounter with Marcus. McGill holds a B.A. in English literature from Fordham University and an MFA in education from Pacific University in Oregon.

Maggie Nelson: 16/3/18, 6:30pm

Poet, scholar, and nonfiction writer Maggie Nelson earned a PhD in English literature at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her published writing is often described as genre crossing or hybrid with works such as Bluets (2009) and The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (2011). Her genre-bending memoir, The Argonauts (2015), was a finalist for the National Books Critics Circle Award. Nelson’s many honors and awards include grants and fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the NEA.

Walidah Imarisha: 11/4/ 18, 6pm

Walidah Imarisha is an educator, writer, public scholar, and spoken word artist. She edited two anthologies, Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements and Another World is Possible. Imarisha’s Angels with Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison, and Redemption won a 2017 Oregon Book Award. She is also the author of the poetry collection Scars/Stars. Imarisha has taught in Stanford University’s Program of Writing and Rhetoric, Portland State University’s Black Studies Department, Oregon State University’s Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department, and Southern New Hampshire University’s English department.

PNCA’s MA in Critical Studies claims critical theory as a creative project of analysis and exposure radically interested in accountability and the material effects of ideas. The program combines the study of critical theory with engaged research so that students are readied not only to critique but also to intervene, reimagine, and remake. For more information, contact Chair, Shawna Lipton, slipton@pnca.edu or visit http://pnca.edu/graduate/c/cs.

Application Deadline: 1/2/18. Apply now.

Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies at PNCA
Low-Residency MFA in Visual Studies / MA in Critical Studies / MFA in Applied Craft + Design (with Oregon College of Art and Craft) / MFA in Collaborative Design/MA in Design Systems / MFA in Print Media / MFA in Visual Studies