The 2024 Blackburn Literary Festival - “History and Its Alternatives” - featuring esteemed novelists Rachel Kushner, Claire Messud, and Paul Yoon - offered literature enthusiasts a unique and privileged experience. It allowed them to interact with writers they admire and gain insights into their craft that are often inaccessible to the public.
This year’s festival began on Friday, October 18th, with a dozen or more Duke students joining Claire Messud and Paul Yoon for creative writing workshops. Each author provided the students with readings that were catalysts for their workshops.
Yoon began his workshop by asking each of his students what genres they preferred and what they were currently writing. He shared some of his writing experiences and what attracted him to creative writing. In preparation for the workshop, Yoon asked the students to read Lauren Groff’s short story “The Wind,” which they discussed before workshopping their own writing.
“It was wonderful to unfold how the beginnings of stories work in Paul Yoon’s workshop. I appreciated the chance to learn how he thought about narrative and language through the lens of opening, engagement, and expectation!”
- Tyler King, ’25, English and Biomedical Engineering
The theme of Messud’s workshop was “Time; the perceptions and distortions of it,” hence “Time” was a key component of the workshop’s discussion. Messud and her students examined the role of time in writing and how it affects the readers’ experience. Prior to discussing their reading assignments, an excerpt from In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust and an excerpt from Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and workshopping their own work, their discussion looked at the role that “tense” plays in writing, the importance of how time is illustrated on the page, and how this allows the author to guide their reader on a literary journey.
“Professor Messud was deeply interested in each writer’s life. By affirming that every sentiment, memory, and evasion on paper was valid and valuable to our narratives, she allowed our imaginations to run where they would.”
- Natalie Farris, ’25, English, Spanish, and the Medical Sciences
The students who attended these workshops included English majors, Creative Writing minors, and Duke students who had taken a creative writing course or two during their time at Duke. This diversity enriched the discussions and highlighted the universal appeal of creative writing as an art form and a personal interest.
On Saturday night, a crowd of 200+ people gathered in Page Auditorium to hear novelist Rachel Kushner’s keynote address and witness a panel discussion on the craft of creative writing.
Duke English Chair Charlotte Sussman kicked the night off by welcoming the crowd and thanking them for joining Duke Arts and the Duke English Department in celebrating the legacy of one of the department’s most noted professors, William M. Blackburn. Professor Sussan shared a little history about the Blackburn Festival, which was first held in 1959 and some background on Professor Blackburn who, during his more than four decades at Duke University, helped establish the creative writing sector of department.
Kushner began her address by discussing what the theme of this year’s festival, “History and Its Alternatives,” meant to her.
She then read excerpts from her novel Creation Lake and shared behind-the-scenes elements that went into her writing this New York Times Bestseller.
Following Kushner’s address, the audience was treated to a panel discussion moderated by Akhil Sharma, a Duke English Professor. Kushner was joined by Claire Messud and Paul Yoon as panelists. This group of four accomplished novelists talked about their writing experiences and the craft of creative writing. They discussed what attracted them to creative writing, its place in the world, writing about the past and its historical elements, and how they handled moments when it’s a struggle to put pen to paper. The evening gave the audience a glimpse into the minds of living literary artists they admire.
To conclude the 2024 Blackburn Literary Festival weekend, Messud, Yoon, and Kushner entertained the audience that joined them on a beautiful Fall Sunday, afternoon for the “Triple-Header” Reading, Q&A, Book Signing; followed by a reception which allowed the audience to mingle with the trio of beloved authors.
Each author read segments from a piece of their work. Messud read from This Strange, Eventful History, and Yoon chose to read an excerpt from his article in The New Yorker, “War Dogs,” released online the day of the reading. He had never read this piece to anyone, making it a special treat. Kushner rounded out the reading with some short excerpts from her novel Creation Lake.
During the Q&A that followed, members of the audience took advantage of the opportunity to ask the authors questions about specific aspects of their work, writing habits, and experiences in general. The trio took turns fielding questions ranging from how they select the details to include in their writing, what elements they choose to leave for the reader to interpret, and how they envision the reader living in the words they put on the page.
The Blackburn Festival is funded by the Arthur G. Raynes (Trinity, 1956) Endowment which supports readings “by authors of the highest national achievement.” Duke English and Duke Arts organized this festival of creative writing that honors the legacy of William Blackburn and offers the Duke community an opportunity to hear and interact with distinguished authors.
“It was so interesting to hear Kushner, Messud, and Yoon--despite their differences in subject matter and style--writing fictions that seek out the connections between people across distances of time and space, to say nothing of these authors’ own personal desire to forge connections with engaged readers. What a pleasure to be able to attend this reading! I sincerely hope that the department can continue to bring writers of this caliber to the university year after year.” - Charles Joseph Del Dotto, Duke English Alum, AM, 2002 and PhD, 2010
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