The UCSB Writing Program was honored to host a discussion with novelist and essayist Zadie Smith during her visit to UCSB on November 29th and 30th. Her visit was sponsored by UCSB’s Arts and Lectures. 

 

Zadie Smith, one of the most critically acclaimed writers of our time, has authored several novels and essays, most recently Swing Time, a novel about two young black girls in London interested in dance. She has a collection of essays coming out in February of next year. Her writing explores race, class, social issues, immigration, and other questions of identity, or, as she said in a New York Times interview, "what it is to be alive." She was born in London and now lives and writes in New York.

 

Zadie Smith joined the Writing Program for a private event with 40 writing students. Prof. Ellen O’Connell Whittet organized this event and lead the discussion. When asked what advice she had for the young writers in attendance, Smith counseled the young women to write with confidence and boldness. “Really get behind your writing” she admonished. This event was attended by students in Writing 105M Magazine Writing, 105C Creative Nonfiction, 105R Rhetoric and Writing, as well as students in the Writing and Literature major in the College of Creative Studies.