The Desert Nights, Rising Stars
Writers Conference

Home / Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference / Schedule / 2019 / Conference Schedule Friday, February 22, 2019 / The War on Cliché with James Sallis

Conference Schedule 2019

Conference Schedule 2019

Friday, February 22, 2019, 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Imagination and the War on Cliché with James Sallis

Date(s): Friday, February 22, 2019, 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Heritage, University Club (view map)
Type(s): Presentation, Seminar
Genre and Form(s): Creative Practice, Mixed Genre, Writing Life, Writing Practice, Writing Process
Tags: Description, Setting, Character, Narration, Imagination, Cliché

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About the Session

Martin Amis said that all writing is a war on cliche -- not only cliches of expression, but cliches of setting, character, even narrative style. Tim O'Brien wrote that what he finds lacking in so much of today's writing is simple imagination. We'll talk about rejecting the first streams of what comes to mind, about digging deeper: seeing, visualizing, recreating. 

Meet the Presenter(s)

Desert Nights Rising Stars Writers Conference Faculty 2019 James Sallis


James Sallis

James Sallis has published seventeen novels, multiple collections of short stories and essays, four collections of poetry, three books of musicology, reams of criticism, a classic biography of Chester Himes, a book on paperback novelists of the fifties, and a translation of Raymond Queneau's novel Saint Glinglin – 36 books, to date. His novels include Drive, from which the award-winning film derived, the six-volume Lew Griffin cycle, Death Will Have Your Eyes, Others of My Kind, and Willnot. Jim has received a lifetime achievement award from Bouchercon, the Hammett Award for literary excellence in crime writing, and the Grand Prix de Littérature policière. This year sees a new novel, Sarah Jane, and a new poetry collection, Ain’t Long ‘Fore Day.


Learn more about James Sallis