Steel Yourself Before You Reveal Yourself

A good journalist reports the story, but never becomes the story. But as essayists and non-fiction writers, we’re not journalists. Sometimes our lives are, in fact, the story. What does it mean to write about ourselves and our lives, and then, to publish that writing? What does it mean when people read that writing, and discuss it—and us—publicly, as well as privately?

Alexander Chee (How To Write an Autobiographical Novel), Morgan Jerkins (This May Be My Undoing), and Joseph Osmundson (Virology, forthcoming 2022) will discuss the choice to write about ourselves and dive into the public discourse as both writer and subject, and how to prepare for the unique scrutiny that comes with essay, memoir, and autobiographical writing. They will also offer tools to help writers determine how much of themselves to reveal in their writing in the first place. Moderated by Electric Literature’s Editor-in-Chief Denne Michele Norris. Their conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A. This event is part of Electric Lit’s Fall 2021 series, presented by Mount Saint Mary’s University.