Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft with JANET BURROWAY - Highlights

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft with JANET BURROWAY - Highlights

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Novelist, Playwright & Author of Most Widely Used Creative Writing Text in America

There’s a lot of controversy about that idea at the moment, about whether fiction is truly empathic and how much freedom the imagination should have because, as one of my friends says, the imagination is not free. It comes from all of the places that we come from. So it’s a controversial notion, but I am firmly on the side of literature is empathic. In fact, I think that all the arts are empathic because all the arts basically say, ‘Wait a minute. Look at it this way.’ And they allow us to see from some other vantage point than our extremely self-interested selves.

JANET BURROWAY - Novelist, Playwright & Author of Most Widely Used Creative Writing Text in USA

JANET BURROWAY - Novelist, Playwright & Author of Most Widely Used Creative Writing Text in USA

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Novelist, Playwright & Author of Most Widely Used Creative Writing Text in America

There’s a lot of controversy about that idea at the moment, about whether fiction is truly empathic and how much freedom the imagination should have because, as one of my friends says, the imagination is not free. It comes from all of the places that we come from. So it’s a controversial notion, but I am firmly on the side of literature is empathic. In fact, I think that all the arts are empathic because all the arts basically say, ‘Wait a minute. Look at it this way.’ And they allow us to see from some other vantage point than our extremely self-interested selves.

Navigating Global Challenges: ROBERT AXELROD on Working with the UN, World Bank & US Department of Defense - Highlights

Navigating Global Challenges: ROBERT AXELROD on Working with the UN, World Bank & US Department of Defense - Highlights

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Former Consultant for the UN, World Bank & US Department of Defense
Professor Emeritus of Political Science & Public Policy at University of Michigan
National Medal of Science Award-Winner

I think the most critical thing is education for critical thinking. The ability to listen to a political argument or an argument of any sort, on COVID, for example, or climate change, and not necessarily understand the science behind that, but to understand how to evaluate the credibility of the speaker, how to evaluate the logic of the arguments and to see whether a conspiracy theory is behind this that has no grounding… And so I think what’s especially important in would be an educational in critical thinking.

Political Scientist & National Medal of Science Recipient ROBERT AXELROD on Political Cooperation

Political Scientist & National Medal of Science Recipient ROBERT AXELROD on Political Cooperation

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Former Consultant for the UN, World Bank & US Department of Defense
Professor Emeritus of Political Science & Public Policy at University of Michigan
National Medal of Science Award-Winner

I think the most critical thing is education for critical thinking. The ability to listen to a political argument or an argument of any sort, on COVID, for example, or climate change, and not necessarily understand the science behind that, but to understand how to evaluate the credibility of the speaker, how to evaluate the logic of the arguments and to see whether a conspiracy theory is behind this that has no grounding… And so I think what’s especially important in would be an educational in critical thinking.

VIET THANH NGUYEN - Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author of The Sympathizer & The Committed

VIET THANH NGUYEN - Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author of The Sympathizer & The Committed

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Writer

Ever since I was a kid, I see this sign in a window near my parents' store. 'Another American Driven Out of Business by the Vietnamese.' And I thought, That's a story. At ten or twelve or whatever, I knew that was a story. And it didn't include me and my parents. But there's a direct connection between that story and Make America Great Again. That's been my life project to say, 'No, we didn't drive you out of your own country.' You know, there's a much more complicated story here about America, about Vietnam, about me, about my people and as American people and Vietnamese people that needs to be told through the arts and the humanities, right? It's a crucial terrain, which is why we keep fighting about it, whether we're Democrats or Republicans, conservatives or liberals. We know that culture is an important place where we define who we are.

VIET THANH NGUYEN - Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author of The Sympathizer & The Committed

VIET THANH NGUYEN - Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author of The Sympathizer & The Committed

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Writer

Ever since I was a kid, I see this sign in a window near my parents' store. 'Another American Driven Out of Business by the Vietnamese.' And I thought, That's a story. At ten or twelve or whatever, I knew that was a story. And it didn't include me and my parents. But there's a direct connection between that story and Make America Great Again. That's been my life project to say, 'No, we didn't drive you out of your own country.' You know, there's a much more complicated story here about America, about Vietnam, about me, about my people and as American people and Vietnamese people that needs to be told through the arts and the humanities, right? It's a crucial terrain, which is why we keep fighting about it, whether we're Democrats or Republicans, conservatives or liberals. We know that culture is an important place where we define who we are.