In autumn 2022, I visited the Center for Biographical Research at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa to exchange thoughts on creative self-writing, in particular on autofiction, with the Center for Biographical Research as well as the English Department.
I was invited to present my research on writing at the boundary between fiction and autobiography as part of CBR’s weekly lecture series, which, since the pandemic, is being held in hybrid format. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to share my work in this format and discuss it with members of the university and beyond. A recording is available here on YouTube: “From Masking to Masquerade: Autofictional effects in Diachronic Perspective” (external link).
I am grateful to CBR’s director, Craig Howes, for hosting me and for insightful comments in response to my presentation. His remarks sparked me to reflect more in particular on autofiction’s relation to celebrity culture. I also thoroughly enjoyed our conversations about the diverse life-writing cultures of Hawai’i, colonialism, environmental damage, about narrative interventions in local contexts, and about Hawaiian experiences in a world of crises.
Reading recommendation:
- The Value of Hawai’i 3: Hulihia, the Turning (ed. by Neolani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua, Craig Howes, Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwoʻole Osorio, and Aiko Yamashiro, 2021) (external link).
I would like to also thank Paige Rasmussen (Managing Editor of the journal Biography, hosted at CBR) for ensuring a smooth visit, for insightful exchanges about different university systems, and for hands-on tips relating to scholarly and tourist explorations. Graduate Assistant Caroline Zuckerman was as helpful, and we found that we share interests in testimonial cultures, which we were able to exchange reading recommendations on and which I look forward to further exploring.
I had first heard about CBR from John Zuern (English), at a conference of the International Auto/Biography Association (in 2015), and it was a pleasure to see him again at the University of Hawai’i. We had several inspiring conversations about life writing and narrative therapy, both in relation to my current research and in the context of several guest lectures held at the English Department during my visit.
I thoroughly enjoyed participating in events held by the creative writing strand of the English Department, and getting to know students and members of staff from the program. During the “Words @ Mānoa” literary series, I was able to meet and discuss narrative therapy with poet and therapist Hala Alyan, visiting from New York, and I hope to continue this exchange and to develop it further together with the LCE community in Oslo.
Reading recommendation:
- Hala Alyan The Twenty-Ninth Year (2019) (external link).
It was a pleasure also to get to know Shawna Yang Ryan (English), who took time to talk to me about autofiction (which she is teaching this term as part of the creative writing program), about her own fiction, and about a project collecting and archiving the stories of members of the Taiwanese diaspora, all of this while touring the beautiful UH campus, including its Japanese garden.
Reading recommendations:
- Shawna Yang Ryan Water Ghosts (2009)
- Shawna Yang Ryan Green Island (2016) (external links).
Lastly, I would like to thank Craig Santos Perez (English) for generously making time to share his thoughts as environmental poet and activist on questions of genre, narrative as intervention and place-based creative writing.
Reading recommendations:
- Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures (Ed. by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Leora Kava, and Craig Santos Perez, 2020)
- Craig Santos Perez Habitat Threshold (2020) (external links).
Climate-wise, it was difficult to return to a late-November dark and rainy Oslo, but it was the more enjoyable to take inspiration and ideas from Hawai’i to my work here, and I look forward to continuing the productive exchanges started during my research stay.