It looks like I’m going…

It looks like I'm going to Melbourne in late November, for the Nonfiction Now conference. Woohoo!

Now, who do I know there? Are there people who'd like to meet up, and/or hear me read? Is it worth my trying to schedule a reading while I'm there?

This is the panel I'll be chairing:

Diaspora: Centering the Margins

This panel will consider issues raised by diaspora / expatriate writers working with material from their home countries, who are separated from that country by distance, time, and the tides of cultural shift. We'll address the responsibilities of the diaspora writer -- the ways in which we work towards respecting the home culture, while at the same time both interrogating its images of itself, and staying true to the integrity of our own self-constructions. We'll explore centering the outsider's perspective, the work of the persistent outsider, and queerness as a form of migration from one world / set of traditions to a new world (of possibly greater perceived freedom). If time allows, we may also address issues of language and assimilation in writing, issues of explanation / exotification / minstrelsy, and questions of agenda and stakeholding within a community.