Life Makes Art: Three Writers on How Life Experiences Shape Writing

How do real-world experiences translate to the creation of art--and stories, poems, and essays most of all? Join fiction writer Cathy Sultan, nonfiction writer Patti See, and poet Bruce Taylor for a panel discussion on how life experiences shape art, no matter what genre you’re in. Hosted by Eau Claire Writer in Residence, Ken Szymanski.

Co-sponsored by the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild.

About the Presenters

Patti See’s work has appeared in Brevity, Salon Magazine, Wisconsin People & Ideas, The Southwest Review, HipMama, Inside HigherEd, “Wisconsin Life” on Wisconsin Public Radio as well as many other magazines and anthologies. Her blog “Our Long Goodbye: One Family’s Experiences with Alzheimer’s” has been read in over 100 countries. She is the author of a collection of essays, Here on Lake Hallie: In Praise of Barflies, Fix-it-guys, and Other Folks in Our Hometown (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2022). Since 2019 she has written a monthly column, “Sawdust Stories,” for the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram and won first place awards from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association's Annual Better Newspaper Contest in 2019 and 2020. Patti lives on Lake Hallie with her husband, the writer Bruce Taylor.

Bruce Taylor is the author of several collections of poetry, including Pity the World: Poems New & Selected (Plain View Press, 2005), The Longest You’ve Lived Anywhere: New & Selected Poems 2013 (Upriver Press, 2012), and In Other Words (Upriver Press, 2014). He has edited eight anthologies, including Eating the Menu: A Contemporary American Poetry 1970-74 (1974), Wisconsin Poetry (1991), and Higher Learning, 3rd ed. (2011, coedited with Patti See). His poetry and translations have appeared in such places as Able Muse, Chicago Review, Columbia Review, The Cortland Review, The Formalist, Literary Salt, Light, The Nation, The New York Quarterly, The Northwest Review, Poetry, Rattle, Rosebud, Slow Trains, Verse Wisconsin, Your Daily Poem, and on The Writer's Almanac. He has won awards and fellowships from the Wisconsin Arts Board, Fulbright-Hayes, the Council of Wisconsin Writers, the Bush Artist Foundation and the Excellence In Scholarship award from UWEC. He is poet laureate of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Cathy Sultan is an award-winning author of three nonfiction books: A Beirut Heart: One Woman’s War; Israeli and Palestinian Voices: A Dialogue with Both Sides; and Tragedy in South Lebanon. A Beirut Heart was translated into Chinese in 2013. The Syrian, a political thriller, was her first work of fiction, followed by Damascus Street. Her third in the Syria quartet was published in 2021. Sultan is also a peace activist. Sultan won USA’s Best Book of the Year Award in 2006 for her Autobiography A Beirut Heart; USA’s Best Book of the Year Award in 2006 the category of History/Politics for Israeli and Palestinian Voices; 2006 Midwest Book Awards-Honorable Mention in the Category of Political Science for Israeli and Palestinian Voices. Tragedy in South Lebanon was nominated for Best Book of the Year in the Category of Political Science in 2008 and Damascus Street was honored as a 2019 Montaigne Medal Finalist. In 2022, An Ambassador to Syria won the 2022 Independent Press Awards under Historical Fiction.