LIKE LOVE

In her seminar, Maggie Nelson will talk about the process of putting together a collection of essays written over the past two decades. Focused on individual artists and writers, these works include profiles, reviews, remembrances, prefaces, tributes, and art catalogue essays, as well as seven conversations with friends and idols which bring to life Nelson’s passion for dialogue and dissent. Certain themes recur throughout: intergenerational devotion; love and friendship; feminist and queer issues, especially as they shape-shift over time; subversion, transgression, and perversity; the role of the critic and language in relation to visual and performance art; and the fruits and follies of a life spent devoted to making.

Maggie Nelson is the author of several acclaimed books of poetry and prose, many of which have become cult classics defying categorization. Her nonfiction titles include the national bestseller On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (2021), the National Book Critics Circle Award winner and New York Times bestseller The Argonauts (2015), The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (2011; a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Bluets (2009; named by Bookforum as one of the top 10 best books of the past 20 years), The Red Parts (2007), and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (2007). Her poetry titles include Something Bright, Then Holes (2007) and Jane: A Murder (2005; finalist, the PEN/ Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir). She has been the recipient of a 2016 MacArthur “genius” Fellowship, as well as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, Creative Capital, and the Andy Warhol Foundation. She holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and has taught at The New School, Pratt Institute of Art, Wesleyan University, and CalArts. Since 2017 she has been a Professor of English at the University of Southern California, where she teaches in the doctoral program in Creative Nonfiction.