I Love Dick, Chris Kraus’s auto-fiction about the obsessions of a writer named Chris Kraus, has influenced a generation of writers to experiment with blurring fact and fiction as a way to claim radical subjectivity. The book has now been adapted into an Amazon Prime series produced by Jill Soloway (Transparent). In a conversation about how genre-crossing writing makes visible issues of feminism, race, queerness, and culture, Kraus will talk with writers who have been influenced by her innovations: Tisa Bryant (Unexplained Presence), whose hybridized writings explore the presumed absence of Black bodies in film and literature; Anelise Chen (So Many Olympic Exertions), whose dissections of sports and personal history interrogate ideas about success; and Q.M. Zhang (Accomplice to Memory), whose hybrid memoir utilizes tools of fiction and non-fiction to uncover her father’s secret past.

Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library Rm 240

When: November 3, 2017, 5:30 p.m. Book signing and reception to follow.

Admission: Admission is free. Reservations required. RSVP opens Wednesday, October 11, at 9 a.m

USC Students, Staff, and Faculty: RSVP
USC Alumni: RSVP
General Public: RSVP

About the Participants:

Tisa Bryant is the author of Unexplained Presence, a collection of hybrid essays that remix narratives from film, literature, and visual arts and zoom in on the black presences operating within them. An excerpt from her novella [the curator] was published by Belladonna Books in a companion volume with Chris Kraus. (Twitter)

Anelise Chen is the author of So Many Olympic Exertions, a former fellow of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and the fiction editor at AAWW’s online publication, The Margins. (Blog, Twitter)

Chris Kraus is the author of I Love Dick, Aliens & Anorexia, Torpor, and Summer of Hate. Before her career as a writer, she was an artist and filmmaker. (New York Times profile, Wikipedia)

Q.M. Zhang (Accomplice to Memory) is a writer of hybrid non/fiction stories and forms, with a focus on “Chinese” and “American” identities, communities, and border crossings. (Kaya Press interview)

Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Organized by Viet Nguyen (English and American Studies and Ethnicity), Dana Johnson (English and Creative Writing), Jonathan Wang (Asian Pacific American Student Services), and Sunyoung Lee (Kaya Press).

This event, and all of Kaya Press’s work, is made possible in part by grants from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles Arts Commission.