Chicago, IL - Artists will discuss the craft and business of creative nonfiction at Columbia College Chicago's seventh annual Creative Nonfiction Week, October 14 -19. Co-sponsored by the college's English, Journalism and Fiction Writing Departments, the program will feature readings, lectures and panel discussions, along with visual presentations. (See detailed schedule below.) All events are free and open to the public. For more information visit www.colum.edu/cnfw or call 312-344-8100.
For the first time this year, the list of accomplished Creative Nonfiction Week speakers will include those artists whose creative nonfiction pieces are communicated not only through writing, but through other forms as well. In addition to discussions with well known artists and journalists such as Alex Kotlowitz, author of, Never a City So Real, The Other Side of the River and There Are No Children, graphic novelists Scott McCloud, Ivan Brunetti and Art Spiegelman will examine the art of storytelling through drawing. Chicago Tribune photographer Antonio Perez, Chicago Public Radio senior content developer Justin Kaufmann, Chicago Public Radio reporter Natalie Moore and documentarian Ted Hardin will further explore the topic of storytelling through sound and image during Thursday’s panel discussion.
“Creative non-fiction is a genre that pushes boundaries. It includes various forms such as memoir, biography, travel writing, opinion and personal essays,” said Teresa Puente, a member of the journalism faculty and co-coordinator of Creative Nonfiction Week. “This year we will have an amazing lineup of speakers from journalists to performance artists and graphic novelists who experiment with the form in words, sounds and images,” Puente added.
Full schedule of events:
Sunday, October 14
Hokin Gallery, 623 S. Wabash
5 p.m. Fiction Writing department alumni reading with Arnie Bernstein, Christina Katz and Molly Each.
Monday, October 15
Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash, 8th floor
3 p.m. Reading by English, Journalism and Fiction Writing students.
7 p.m. Controversial performance artist and author of Swooning Beauty: A Memoir of Pleasure, Joanna Frueh explores love, eros, and human relations through creative nonfiction.
8 p.m. A discussion with philosopher and public lecturer, Alphonso Lingis, author of more than ten philosophically unconventional books.
Tuesday, October 16
Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash, 8th floor
3 p.m. Speaker Anne-Marie Oomen writes haunting lyrical stories of farm, fields, and family.
7 p.m. Award-winning author of Never a City So Real, The Other Side of the River and There Are No Children Here and former staff writer of the Wall Street Journal Alex Kotlowitz takes the stage.
Wednesday, October 17
Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash, 8th floor
1 p.m. Faculty Reading with Fiction Writing Department’s Alexis Pride, Journalism Department’s Curtis Lawrence and English Department’s Garnett Kilberg Cohen.
3 p.m. The audience is joined by Ivan Brunetti, editor of An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories (Yale University Press, 2006). His most recent book Misery Loves Company, a psychiatric case study masquerading as a fancy-pants graphic novel, collects the first three issues of his legendary comic book series Schizo.
7 p.m. Scott McCloud will discuss the art and craft of telling stories visually. His book Understanding Comics was a New York Times Notable book for 1994 and is available in 16 languages. "Sin City" and "300" creator Frank Miller called him "just about the smartest guy in comics."
Thursday, October 18
Film Row Cinema, 1104 S. Wabash, 8th floor
3 p.m. Panel on telling stories through sound and image with Chicago Tribune photographer Antonio Perez, Chicago Public Radio senior content developer Justin Kaufmann, Chicago Public Radio reporter Natalie Moore and documentarian Ted Hardin.
Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash, 1st floor
7:30 p.m. A discussion with Art Spiegelman. “From his Holocaust saga in which Jewish mice are exterminated by Nazi cats, to the The New Yorker covers guaranteed to offend, to a wild party that ends in murder: Art Spiegelman’s cartoons don’t fool around.”—Los Angeles Times
Friday, October 19
C-33 Gallery, 33 E. Congress
2 p.m. Celebration and Reading for South Loop Review, the nonfiction journal published by the English Department.
-end-