What if all there is to write about is… nothing? This lecture will explore the paradoxical richness that may exist in writing so highly constrained that it’s effectively about almost nothing. We’ll look at texts by Lydia Davis, Amy Fusselman, Jenny Boully, Deb Olin Unferth, Thomas Bernhard, Geoff Dyer, Renee Gladman, David Markson, and others.
Sarah Manguso is the author, most recently, of 300 Arguments (2017), a work of aphoristic autobiography. Her other nonfiction books include Ongoingness: The End of a Diary (2015), an essay on self-documentation, motherhood, and time; The Guardians (2012), an essay on friendship and suicide; and The Two Kinds of Decay (2008), an essay on living with chronic illness. Her work has been supported by Hodder and Guggenheim fellowships and the Rome Prize, and her books have been translated into six languages. She lives in Los Angeles.
This event is colloquium credit eligible.