Race and Craft: Master Class with David Mura

Soul Bone Lit Fest & MIU's MFA in Creative Writing

This Master Class with David Mura is part of MIU's MFA in Creative Writing Residency.

Poet, writer, educator, and critic David Mura will talk about race and craft, using material from his latest book, A Stranger&#x27;s Journey: Race, Identity, and Narrative Craft in Writing published by the University of Georgia Press.

Long recognized as a master teacher at writing programs like VONA, the LOFT, and the Stonecoast MFA, David Mura has written a book on creative writing that addresses our increasingly diverse American literature. Mura argues for a more inclusive and expansive definition of craft, particularly in relationship to race, even as he elucidates timeless rules of narrative construction in fiction and memoir. His essays offer technique-focused readings of writers such as James Baldwin, ZZ Packer, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mary Karr, and Garrett Hongo, while making compelling connections to his own life and work as a Japanese American writer.

Mura poses two central questions: The first involves identity: How is writing an exploration of who one is and one&#x27;s place in the world? Mura examines how the myriad identities in our changing contemporary canon have led to new challenges regarding both craft and pedagogy. Like Toni Morrison&#x27;s Playing in the Dark or Jeff Chang&#x27;s Who We Be, Mura&#x27;s book breaks new ground in our understanding of the relationship between the issues of race, literature, and culture. Today&#x27;s master class will examine race, identity, and narrative craft in a vital discussion of our time.

Race and Craft: Master Class with David Mura

More events from Soul Bone Lit Fest & MIU's MFA in Creative Writing

Discover more events from Soul Bone Lit Fest & MIU's MFA in Creative Writing, from Community to other experiences you might love.

Race and Craft: Master Class with David Mura

More events from Soul Bone Lit Fest & MIU's MFA in Creative Writing

Discover more events from Soul Bone Lit Fest & MIU's MFA in Creative Writing, from Community to other experiences you might love.

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