The artist, Robert Rauschenberg, once said: “I usually work in a direction until I know how to do it; then I stop. For Rauschenberg, the artist is engaged in an ongoing struggle against what he or she knows how to do. Any creative person, whether they consider themselves an artist or not, is always attempting to discover something unknown. And once making a discovery, they try to create new problems to complicate or challenge what they’ve found out. In my talk on what I call—the art of know knowing—I will discuss how the unknown is revealed in the story, “Awaiting Orders” by Tobias Wolff.
Wesley Brown is the author of three novels, Tragic Magic, Darktown Strutters, and Push Comes to Shove; a collection of short stories, Dance of the Infidels; four produced plays, Boogie Woogie and Booker T, Life During Wartime, A Prophet Among Them and Dark Meat on a Funny Mind. He taught literature and creative writing for 26 years at Rutgers University and currently teaches at Bard College at Simon’s Rock.