The Muse & The Marketplace 2020

From Carmen Maria Machado to Ocean Vuong, Alexander Chee, and Ben Lerner, in today’s literary world, writers are increasingly jumping the genre tracks.  Speculative fiction writers are producing memoirs, poets are producing novels, novelists are producing essay collections, and essayists are becoming poets.  So why are so many authors today so genre-curious?  By writing in more than one genre, do authors continue to tap into their creativity daily and avoid writer’s block?  Moreover, what about the myth that successful, commercial writers only produce work in one genre?  In this talk, we will discuss how authors can navigate the publishing world, learn new craft techniques and genre forms, negotiate with agents and editors, and produce the books they need to while building a career as highly successful multi-genre writers.