An Excerpt from a Q&A with Fenton Johnson and Ander Monson from the October 2009 e-Newsletter:
Fenton and Ander, do you have a personal anecdote you could share about a writing project that required research?
Fenton:
When I started my last book―Keeping Faith: A Skeptic's Journey Among Christian and Buddhist Monks―after many years of research and reading and piles of notes from books and interviews―I had no idea, none, what was going to emerge from the pile. So I lit candles before the goddesses Avalokitishvara (learning and wisdom) and the Virgin Mary (you know her) and prayed: Let something come out of this mess. Please...
Ander:
Research always changes the direction of your writing. That's why it's valuable. I rarely go into my research with a sense of what I expect to find. In writing an essay that started with an investigation of Mountain Dew-flavored Doritos, for instance, I ended up visiting a tortilla chip factory in Michigan, finding my way into stacks of research on the subfield of food science called sensory evaluation, which tries to quantify the ways in which we perceive the taste, mouthfeel, texture, smell, and so on of every food we eat. The more I read about this, the more interested I got in the idea of flavor profile and what it means to like something...
Read the rest of the interview here.
The Inspirational Fact: The Role of Research in Writing Creative Nonfiction
A Benefit for the Creative Writing Program at the University of Arizona
Monday, November 2, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Dorothy Rubel Room at the Helen S. Schaefer Building
How do facts and events inspire literary nonfiction, how can writers effectively incorporate research into works of creativity and imagination, and how can writers balance the imperative to tell a good story with the responsibility to be a good historian? Acclaimed UA Creative Nonfiction Faculty Fenton Johnson and Ander Monson will lead an evening lecture and generative workshop on the use of research in creating essays and memoir. This event will include lecture, discussion, and exercises. All proceeds of this event will go to support a fellowship fund for MFA graduate students.
Tickets are $60. To purchase a ticket, fill out this registration form and mail it with your payment to the address indicated on the form. Questions? Please contact Marlene Cooksey at mcooksey.arizona.edu or (520) 621-3880.
Click here for the Poetry Center Readings & Lectures Series schedule.
