Schedule

Friday, April 29

Morning panels will foreground UM students, both critics and writers, in cross-disciplinary topics.

9:00 - 10:00 AM
Queer Ecology Round Table

How are queer writers reimagining nature, biology, and sexuality in radical new ways that disrupt heterosexist notions of nature? How have ecofeminism and environmental justice shaped queer ecologies? In this panel, writers and critics share new thinking on green topics.

Participants:

• Stacey Balkun

• Kelsey Fox

• Kacee McKinney

• Kara Russell

10:15 AM - 11:15 AM
ACE Round Table

The oft ignored and misunderstood “A” of LGBTQIA+ takes center stage on this panel which brings together critics and writers of multiple genres all writing on and thinking about asexuality. Tackling questions of identity, intimacy, pleasure, and representation these four writers will offer creative readings and commentary on what asexuality means in historic and contemporary contexts. 

Participants:

• Angela Chen

• Max Hunt

• Joshua Nguyen

• Kim Kotel

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Writing the Queer Body

This panel brings together writers from multiple genres, regions, and identities to reflect on their methods for writing about the one home they can all claim in common: the body. What makes a body queer, and how do queer bodies orient themselves in the many spaces they inhabit? Panelists consider what literature makes possible in bringing queer bodies to life on the page.

Moderator: Tyler Allen Penny
Participants:

• Nick White

• C.T. Salazar

• S. Bear Bergman

• Tyler Friend

2:30 - 3:30 PM
Getting Queer Words into the World

Getting queer words into the world has always been absurdly fraught: obscenity laws, mainstream hostility and indifference, and “save the children” moral panics have made publishing queer writers and distributing them to queer readers challenging.  Thankfully, queer culture has always been extraordinarily resourceful. Independent presses, queer and feminist bookstores, queer literary festivals, and queer-focused literary awards have created alternative means to reach queer readers and put pressure on mainstream venues to pay closer attention to queer stories and queer lives.  More recently, social media has provided new ways for queer writers to network and connect with publishers, agents, and readers. Social media has empowered readers and transformed traditional gatekeeping. It has also led to often fierce attacks within the queer community and made those divisions visible in unprecedented ways.

The members of this panel have engaged with these varieties of publication and promotion as publishers, writers, and reviewers, and experienced the ways these strategies succeed, fail, and backfire. We will have a frank discussion about the responsibilities that writers, publishers, and reviewers have toward the whole LGBTQ+ community and the particular problems of bullying and call-out culture in queer publishing communities.

Moderator: Sarah Heying
Participants:

• Jaime Harker

• Lauren Hough

• Douglas Ray

3:45 - 4:45 PM
Queer Intersections

This panel creates space for discussing writing and life at the intersections. How might a queer framework enlighten our understandings of identity, community, and action? How do our multifarious selves shape the ways we write, resist, and imagine the future? Our multigene panelists are invited to read from their books and/or offer their own thoughts and theories on these topics. 

Moderator: Ser Álida
Participants:

• M Shelly Conner

• Wo Chan

• Ruben Quesada

• Xan Phillips

5 - 6 PM
Happy Hour

Location: McCormick's Bar, inside the Inn at Ole Miss

6:15 - 7:30 PM
Keynote Readings
torrin a. greathouse, introduced by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Jericho Brown, introduced by Beth Ann Fennelly

All events are in the Gertrude C. Ford Ballroom at the Inn at Ole Miss unless otherwise noted.