The Muse & the Marketplace 2016

How can an author write effectively outside her or his background, and when is this an act of appropriation? Who has the right to tell a given story? As fiction writers, we are often compelled to inhabit the perspectives of characters outside our own identities or experiences, but this imaginative leap must be taken with care and precision, whether depicting lives outside the author’s gender or culture, generation or historical period. In this conversation, we will tackle complex considerations of both craft and politics as we discuss the challenges and responsibilities inherent in writing "the other.”