For nearly 20 years, the UNCW Department of Creative Writing has celebrated the craft, the people and the practice of making the magic of writing happen with its annual Writers’ Week.
The week (Oct. 29-Nov. 2) is organized around the launch of Trespass: Ecotone Essayists Beyond the Boundaries of Place, Identity, and Feminism, an essay collection forthcoming from the creative writing department’s award-winning national literary magazine Ecotone, and Lookout Books, the department’s in-house book imprint. Writers’ Week will feature panels and craft talks with some of those who literally wrote the book.
Four contributors to the collection – May-lee Chai, Camille T. Dungy, Toni Jensen and Joni Tevis – are participating speakers. The Trespass launch celebration will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 30, with readings by Jensen and Tevis. Chai will read and host a craft lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 31, and Dungy will deliver the Buckner Keynote Reading at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 1.
“This year’s visitors are not only some of the country’s most distinguished contemporary poets and writers, they’re also accomplished teachers, dynamic speakers, inspiring authors and scholars of the literature of social change,” said senior lecturer Emily Louise Smith, who also serves as director of The Publishing Laboratory and co-founder and publisher of Lookout and Ecotone. “It’s a rare opportunity to bring this book off the page, to hear the contributors read from their essays and for them to be in conversation with their editors and agents.”
Also on Wednesday, creative writing department chair David Gessner will moderate “Writers on the Storm: Responding to Hurricane Florence and Environmental Concerns.”
All events are free and open to the public and will be held in Lumina Theater. A complete schedule and details can be found at uncw.edu/writersweek.
