&NOW 2018

In a time when our collective intellectual activity is defined—and perhaps degraded—by passive conformity, short attention spans and technology-delivered diversions, how do publishers and writers find a place and an audience? Since its inception in 2015, KERNPUNKT Press has addressed this conundrum by championing innovative and challenging fiction that experiments with language, form, narrative, and structure, and, in particular, by finding writers whose work acknowledges and celebrates its non-conformity in this apparently disinterested ecosystem. Founder and editor Jesi Buell will begin with a reflection on the creation of a new small press in our current cultural climate, and panelists will read samples of their work and discuss their roles as writers of experimental or non-conforming fiction in a time when literature is dismissed as an archaic art form.