Nov. 13, Kate Zambreno, author and novelist, captivated the virtual minds of nearly 75 participants over Zoom with her writing and conversation.
Brian Blanchfield, University of Idaho associate professor, hosted the online reading and introduced Zambreno, with virtual faces intensely listening, nodding, laughing and offering the Zoom applause reaction. Zambreno had been workshopping with UI graduate students the week prior and voiced how pleased she was to teach and learn from them. One of these graduate students, Milo Muse, introduced Zambreno with a heartfelt speech.
“After spending the last month revisiting Zambreno’s work, I’ve picked up an aversion to the book as the be-all-end-all, and the book as a complete object,” Muse said. “I found myself resisting this emphasis on the published over the process. (Zambreno’s) books perform this resistance.”
Zambreno chose to read a passage from a work in progress. In her reading, she wrote about her emotionally complicated online friendship with a fellow writer and pondered the life that existed for her friend outside of their virtual relationship. She read with clear articulation, confident in her writing.
“I think about how friendship can affect the limits of one’s own sinking,” read Zambreno. “How my friend, who’s still my friend, most likely was reaching for a similar level of absurdity and feeling in her own life and work.”
After the reading, Blanchfield lead everyone in a craft conversation, where Zambreno voiced her opinion on the word “craft.”
“I don’t love the word craft, but I do love the talk of process,” Zambreno said.
After Blanchfield read a few passages from one of Zambreno’s already published works, he opened the conversation up for questions from viewers. During this discussion, Zambreno spoke about her experience in the publishing world and its ups and downs. She talked about the use of humor in her books as a tool, and she discussed her ritualization of writing a book and how her work has changed.
Zambreno mentioned that the work she read from will be available for purchase in May 2021.
Bailey Brockett can be reached at [email protected].