Join International Writing Program (IWP) writers-in-residence and members of the public in person or online for a panel discussion of "Identity Politics:"

In recent decades, what in shorthand is referred to as "identity politics" has had a pervasive role in shaping the U.S.’s artistic production. Is such updating of older cultural and social norms also the case where you write? Why or why not?

Current IWP 2021 Fall Residents on the panel:

Edwige DRO (translator, activist, writer; Côte d’Ivoire) is a co-founder of the collective Abidjan Lit and the founder of 1949, “a library of women’s writings from Africa and the black world.” She has facilitated, judged, and translated for many writing competitions, and coordinated the Francophone program of Writivism in Uganda. Her stories and essays, published in magazines like Popula, This is Africa and the Johannesburg Review of Books, have been widely anthologized. She participates courtesy of the U.S. Embassy in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire).

Muthi NHLEMA (fiction; Malawi) writes speculative fiction. His novella Ta O’reva was shortlisted for Best Novella at the inaugural 2017 Nommo Awards for African Speculative Fiction; other work has also won his country's leading literary prize, FMB-MAWU Short Story Prize, and been long-listed for the Writivism Short Story Prize. The story "One Wit’ This Place" opened the 2016 Imagine Africa 500 anthology. His participation was made possible by the U.S. Embassy in Lilongwe (Malawi).

Dominika SLOWIK (fiction writer; Poland) is the author of two novels, Atlas Doppelganger (2015), finalist for the 2016 Gdynia Literary Prize, and Zimowla (2019), which won the national award Paszport Polityki 2020 alongside other honors; Samosiejki, a collection of stories, is forthcoming in 2021. She also writes reviews, and a regular literary column. Slowik's current work is dedicated to the Anthropocene and climate change. She participates courtesy of the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw.