The act of writing can be difficult, especially when writing about painful subjects. Digging through the stuff that most people spend a lifetime avoiding, ignoring, and repressing can be freeing and empowering, but it can also be distressing, whether we are consciously aware of it or not. How can we take care of ourselves and our bodies while sitting in front of a computer or notebook as we imagine or recount events, feelings, ideas that may be scary or traumatic or depressing? How can we find a balance between being too detached from or too involved when we write? What if you want to write about tortured subjects without torturing yourself? Maybe the booze-soaked, unhinged, chaotic writer's life sounds like hell to you. Maybe peace is what you've been looking for.
Jenny Zhang is the author of My Baby First Birthday (Tin House Books, 2020) and Sour Heart (Lenny Books, 2017). She also writes for TV and film.
Barbara Walters Campus Center BWCC Room B
Open to the public
/ Wednesday