39th Annual Literary Festival at ODU: September 25-29, 2016

Strange Bedfellows -- Politics and Literature

“In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible….political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.” ~ George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”

Politics, as someone once remarked, is the art of the possible. Art, on the other hand, is where the possible and the improbable meet, where realities get checked and dreams gain probability. Art and politics? Strange bedfellows, surely, but it seems fitting that in this year -- in which America will elect a new president -- we gather with writers of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction who have attempted to make sense and art out of political actualities.

~ Michael Pearson and Katherine Jackson, 2016 Festival Directors