News Release — August 1, 2024

Literature and Change: 2024 Flair Symposium Affirms the Value of Reading and Writing

AUSTIN, Texas—“Literature and Change,” the 14th biennial Flair Symposium, takes place November 7-9, 2024, at the Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin.

In the face of dramatic changes in how our society accesses and consumes stories, the study and appreciation of literature is in a precarious state today. Emerging technologies and the growing ascendance of new forms of digital media, combined with the rise of Artificial Intelligence, raise profound questions about how we access and engage with stories and what a story even is. At the same time, an emphasis on vocational outcomes within our colleges and universities has contributed to declining interest in the study of literature, while the polarization of American society has increasingly led to censorship and book bans. In this context, writers, readers, and scholars will gather to discuss and affirm the enduring value of reading and writing, addressing:

• The history of literature instruction
• The importance of stories within non-academic reading communities
• The role of literature in defining and binding together families and communities
• The unique role of the short story and the novel in illuminating an interior life

The symposium’s keynotes will be free and open to the public. Award-winning author of Long Island, Oprah’s latest book club pick, Colm Tóibín, will address the symposium theme on Thursday, November 7, and novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar, will follow on Friday, November 8. Both authors will consider the value of reading and writing in their personal and professional lives and for us all. Lisa Lucas, most recently of Knopf Doubleday, will speak about the current state of the traditional publishing industry and what may lie ahead.

“Over a rich sixty-five-year history, the Harry Ransom Center has emerged as the country’s leading repository for the works of some of our finest and most enduring writers, and it is fitting that the Center convene these discussions of literature’s enduring value and its future.” said Stephen Enniss, Director of the Harry Ransom Center. “The stories collected here are touchstones in our individual and collective lives. For years to come, they will continue to ground us in a fluid and ever-changing world.”

Since 1994, the Ransom Center's Flair Symposium has continued the work of editor, writer and artist Fleur Cowles and her landmark Flair magazine by convening interdisciplinary conversations unlikely to happen elsewhere.

Registration for “Literature and Change” will open August 1st.

More information about the 2024 Flair Symposium