Suzanne Gardinier—Taste and power: writers and the state
Open to the public
| 2:00pm–3:00pm ET
Heimbold Visual Arts Center Donnelley Film Theatre
![Suzanne Gardinier—Taste and power: writers and the state](<div class='component cpt-featured-image-event'><p><img alt='' src='https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/news-events/media/events/gardinier-suzanne-10-02.jpg'/></p><p class="caption">Rachel Eliza Griffiths</p></div>)
This talk will focus on questions of power surrounding what it means to be a writer in the United States, now & over the past 50-or-so years. How did the MFA program originate? What are the complex forces that form any reader's or writer's taste, & the complex forces that frame literary contests & publication & reputation? What are the complexities of a writer's connection to the state(s) in which s/he writes?—all aimed at what Raymond Williams called "unlearning the inherent dominative mode."
Suzanne Gardinier is the author of 12 books, most recently Amérika: The Post-Election Malas (2017), Notes from Havana (2016), & Atlas (2015). She's taught writing at Sarah Lawrence since 1994 & lives in Manhattan.