Morality, Truth and Fiction in America - Bas Heijne, Brad Watson and Markha Valenta

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What does America represent these days? Now that truth and fiction are blurring more and more, and moral limits are being transgressed daily, what values does this country stand for? “Morality, Truth and Fiction in America” was the topic of a conversation between Bas Heijne and Assistant professor Markha Valenta and the most exciting American author Brad Watson.  

Brad Watson’s Miss Jane takes place in Mississippi. The novel covers the life of “Miss” Jane, a woman with a birth defect that prevents her from living a “normal” life. Yet she still wants to do the things everyone else does, and Watson thus calls attention to just what it is that is considered a “normal life.”
A way to approach reality. A story that provides a way to contemplate what it means to be an American today.

Note: Ottessa Moshfegh would originally participate in this programme. She was unfortunately unable to attend due to illness.

B-Unlimited: Markha Valenta, Brad Watson & Bas Heijne
Morality, Truth and Fiction in America | Writers Unlimited
Wednesday 19 September20.30-22.00 hrs
English spoken
Program compiled by Toef Jaeger (Writers Unlimited)
Book sales: Van Stockum Boekverkopers
Central Library, Studio B, Spui 68, The Hague

Information

Date and time Wednesday 19 September 2018 from 20:30 to 22:00 hrs
Location Podium B - Centrale Bibliotheek Den Haag, Spui 68, 5e etage

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Markha Valenta

Markha Valenta (1967) assistant-professor at the Radboud University, is especially interested in the interaction between global politics, democratic societies and questions of religion, citizenship, and belonging. Her articles in NRC Handelsblad on Dutch moralism and intolerance have caused a great deal of controversy. Ms Valenta argues in a reply to an article in the Gay Krant on Tariq Ramadan that inside a democracy there must be room to think and act differently. To her this not only applies to homosexuals (Ms Valenta is a lesbian) but to Muslims too, who have their own views on homosexuality.
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Brad Watson

Brad Watson (1955, Mississippi) is the author of two collections of stories and two novels, The Heaven of Mercury, and Miss Jane. His fiction has been published in The New Yorker, Granta, and Electric Literature, among other publications. Miss Jane was longlisted for the 2016 National Book Award and the 2017 Welcome Book Prize, won the Harper Lee Award, and has been a favorite of booksellers across the United States. Watson teaches at the University of Wyoming, Laramie.
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Bas Heijne

(Nijmegen, NL, 1960) writes essays, short stories and plays, and is a columnist with the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad. He published the novels Laatste woorden (Last words) and Suez and received the Henriëtte Roland Holst Prize in 2005. In 2011's Moeten wij van elkaar houden, het populisme ontleed (Do We Have to Love One Another? Populism Dissected) Heijne shows how globalisation and individualism pave the way for populism. Angst en schoonheid (Fear and Beauty) was published in 2013, an essay about Dutch writer Louis Couperus, whom Heijne admires. In the same year his documentary about Couperus was broadcast. In 2015 he hosted the five-part documentary De volmaakte mens (The Perfect Human). In 2016 his essay Onbehagen – nieuw licht op de beschaafde mens (Discontent - new light on civilized man) was published. In 2017 Heijne received the P.C. Hooft Award for his essayistic works.
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