Tomorrow's blog post marks the end of a month at GC Online with David Mura as guest blogger. Our hope in having David as a guest was to engage in the conversations online, not only about artistic craft and process, but also about a larger landscape, about the representation of voices (or lack thereof), and about exposing assumptions out into the open to complicate them and reconsider the world we writers and readers live in. Click through the titles to read the full posts.

Week 1

Excerpt from “Viva for the Losers!” &  “I Am a Sansei”

“Viva for the Losers!” Reads not only like a manifesto and overview of Mura's artistic perspective, but that it has the energy of getting started, of a reminder of purpose for acting as opposed to only contemplating. “I Am a Sansei” includes a discussion about how you operate outside of the writerly bubble, but also gives insight into who David Mura is as an artist, performer, and activist.

Week 2

“Irreconcilable Conflicts, Lies & Character” & “The Student of Color in the Typical MFA Program” 

“Irreconcilable Conflicts” resonates David's discussion from “I Am a Sansei” in a craft discussion, calling for a new kind of revision for many of us who operate on assumptions we may not have previously acknowledged. “The Student of Color in the Typical MFA Program” continues the conversation, encouraging us to acknowledge the many assumptions upon which we operate, many times unconsciously.

Week 3

“Notes on Questioning Whiteness as a Literary Practice” & “Story and Narrative Voice in Memoir”

Challenged by the blog yet? Here is where we start posting for ourselves the questions Mura poses,  where we can begin to document—for ourselves, or for the public—our personal changes. Memoir, as a private journal or manuscript on the market, is a place to do just that, narratively.

BONUS

"wells fargo sub-prime loans, baltimore & systemic racism" & "on freddy gray, baltimore and the social contract"

In response to Baltimore's appalling week, Gulf Coast Blog was privileged to include David's commentary. Learn a thing or two and get a more profound sense of what all this conflict means.

Week 4

“The Storyteller as Sadist” & “On Ed Bok Lee’s Poem About the Schooner Bar”

Zuckerman’s complaint is among the most useful demonstrations of characterization in fiction, and further echoes many of the inevitabilities of honest, authentic writing and storytelling. Most importantly, it forces readers to confront our multi-faceted psyches, working hand in hand with the unconscious assumptions we bring to the table in race writings. Mura demonstrates here, howe craft and the real world can connect, and not just during the unconscious “drafting phase.”

TOMORROW: Mura's response to Lee’s poem is an amazing blend of the facets of his artistic personality, how he blends craft, culture and politics, of his aesthetic on the page. It leaves a resonant image and impression of you, of the landscape, and of what lies ahead for the literary world. Readers will walk away with that piece resonating in their minds.

Gulf Coast and the rest of the literary world can certainly stand to gain further awareness of the cultural landscape, or what direction it’s going in, of how prophetic visions are to come to fruition.

David, we can’t thank you enough for the opportunity to have your ideas and conversations on the Gulf Coast Blog.