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An evening with Patrick Radden Keefe

Date:
Time:
-
Venue:
University of King's College
Location:
6350 Coburg Road, Halifax. More info
Link:
https://ukings.ca/events/save-the-date-mfa-public-lecture-with-patrick-radden-keefe/
Calendar:
Community event

Join us to hear Patrick Radden Keefe, one of the most important authors of our time, deliver a public lecture in Alumni Hall, moderated by Gillian Turnbull.

Keefe’s book Say Nothing was a detailed investigation of the disappearance of Jean McConville during The Troubles in Ireland; it was recently adapted for television with FX for Disney Plus and Hulu, and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Arthur Ross Gold Medal from the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. Empire of Pain, his deeply researched investigation of the Sackler family, the FDA and the American pharmacology industry, was awarded the Baillie Gifford Prize, was shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year, was a Barack Obama Favorite Book of the Year, and was listed as one of the 10 Best Books of 2021 by the Washington Post, Amazon, Slate, Vulture, People and Entertainment Weekly. It also provided material for the television show Dopesick, and Keefe appeared in Crime of the Century, a documentary on the opioid crisis. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his podcast on the song “Wind of Change” is a winding 8-episode tale of espionage and international intrigue during the Cold War.

A longtime New Yorker feature writer, Keefe is highly regarded in the MFA program; his work is held up as a model, both for its in-depth research and compelling narratives, in the curriculum. His background—from an MSc at the London School of Economics to Yale Law School to a prestigious writing career—and a body of work telling the most urgent stories of our time will be inspirational to our students aspiring to achieve similar impact with their books. The lecture will be preceded by a book signing at 5:45, and will be followed by a Q&A.

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Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) uses the following terms to describe writers’ experience levels:

  • New writers: those with less than two years’ creative writing experience and/or no short-form publications (e.g., short stories, personal essays, or poems in literary magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks).
  • Emerging writers: those with more than two years’ creative writing experience and/or numerous short-form publications.
  • Early-career authors: those with 1 or 2 book-length publications or the equivalent in book-length and short-form publications.
  • Established authors: those with 3 or 4 book-length publications.
  • Professional authors: those with 5 or more book-length publications.

Please keep in mind that each form of creative writing (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, writing for children and young adults, and others) provides you with a unique set of experiences and skills, so you might consider yourself an ‘established author’ in one form but a ‘new writer’ in another.

The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the above definitions. A workshop’s participants should usually have similar levels of creative writing and / or publication experience. This ensures that each participant gets value from the workshop⁠ and is presented with information, strategies, and skills that suit their career stage. 

For “intensive” and “masterclass” workshops, which provide more opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback, the recommended experience level should be followed closely.

For all other workshops, the recommended experience level is just that—a recommendation—and we encourage potential participants to follow their own judgment when registering.

If you’re uncertain of your experience level with regard to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca