&Now 2019 Conference

Fiction Collective Two (FC2) has been a leading publisher of experimental writing for over 40 years. Its mission is to reinvent itself continuously by publishing fictions that keep the possibilities of language vivid and nimble and that dismantle assumed points of view. FC2 authors include, among many others, Samuel Delany, Fanny Howe, Stephen Graham Jones, Diane Williams, Amelia Gray, and Vi Khi Nao. FC2 books make a case for the inexhaustibility of literary forms and, taken together, show a radical and energizing diversity of perspectives, aesthetics, subjects, and styles. This hybrid event will feature short readings from authors brand new to the Collective as well as from authors who joined the Collective at the turn of the 21st century. After the reading, the panelists will discuss literary experimentalism today. What constitutes “the experimental” now, as we hurtle toward a new decade? Participants will discuss the past and present of FC2 in the context of larger literary, social, and political movements and invite the audience into a collaborative, speculative conversation about the future of fiction.