EVENT DETAILS

DIGITAL STORYTELLING: A SYMPOSIUM

Join the Literary Journalism Program, the Department of History, the
Office of the Campus Writing Coordinator/ Center for Excellence in Writing
and Communication, and the Humanities Collective for a one-day symposium on
new developments in digital storytelling. Additional support provided by the Office
of the Chancellor, the Humanities Research Institute, and the staff of the Department
of English.

DIGITAL STORYTELLING: A SYMPOSIUM

THURSDAY, 18 APRIL 2013
11 A.M.-6:30 P.M.
UC IRVINE SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES

Free and open to the public; no reservation required. For more information,
contact piersonp@uci.edu.

Featuring:

Editors from The Atavist, Byliner, LA Review of Books, Longform, Noir, and Matter;
journalists Vanessa Grigoriadis, Jay Caspian Kang, Mike Sager, Angilee Shah,
and Kurt Streeter; UCI faculty Jonathan Alexander, Carol Burke, Miles Corwin,
Erika Hayasaki, Kavita Philip, Barry Siegel, and Amy Wilentz; and student projects
by Dominique Boubion, Shadi Jafari, Liana Lagoda, Janina Paragele, Ian Massey,
Cleo Tobbi, and Kaitlin Wright.

*****

Schedule of Events:

Welcome Message
Amy Wilentz (UCI English and Literary Journalism)

11-12:30 “The Future of Digital Publishing”: A Roundtable
Humanities Instructional Building 135

Moderated and introduced by Kavita Philip (UCI History)

Featuring:
Tom Lutz, Founder and Editor, LA Review of Books; Professor, UC Riverside
Department of Creative Writing
Angilee Shah, Social Media Manager at Public Radio International, consulting
editor to the Journal of Asian Studies and co-editor of Chinese Characters
(UCPress, 2012)
Nancie Clare, Founder and Editor of Noir Magazine (noirmagazine.tumblr.com)
Mike Sager, Writer-at-Large for Esquire and founder of digital publishing
imprint The Sager Group (www.thesagergroup.net)

12:30-1:30 PM Master Class on Digital Narratives, Hosted by The Atavist
Humanities Gateway Building 1010
Gray Beltran, Multimedia Producer and Community Editor, The Atavist
Moderated by Erika Hayasaki (UCI English and Literary Journalism)

1:30-2:30 Lunch Reception and Display of Student Digital Narrative Projects
Humanities Gateway 1010
Featuring:
Dominique Boubion "Old Aliso"
Shadi Jafari "A Mother's Heartache Through Civil War"
Liana Lagoda "Fortitude"
Ian Massey "Big West Dreams"
Janina Paragele "Behind His Mask"
Cleo Tobbi "We Tried It at Home"
Kaitlin Wright "Heart to Heart"

2:30-3:30 "Sports & Pop Culture Narrative and the Web"
Humanities Gateway 1030
Introduced by Carol Burke (UCI English and Literary Journalism) and moderated by
Miles Corwin (UCI English and Literary Journalism)
Jay Caspian Kang (Grantland) in conversation with Kurt Streeter (LA Times)

3:30-4:30 PM Live Podcast Interview of Vanessa Grigoriadis by Max Linsky
*Interview will be conducted on-site*
Humanities Gateway 1030
Interviewer: Max Linsky of Longform.org

4:30-5 PM Coffee Reception and Display of Student Digital Narratives
Humanities Gateway 1010

5-6:30 PM “Storytelling, Narrative, and Writing in the Digital Age”: A Panel
Discussion
Humanities Gateway 1030
Introduced by Jonathan Alexander (UCI English, Campus Writing Coordinator)
Moderated by Barry Siegel and Erika Hayasaki (UCI English and Literary
Journalism)

Featuring:

Charles Homans, Editor, The Atavist
Jim Giles, Editor, Matter
Aaron Lammer, Editor, Longform
Mark Bryant, Editor-in-Chief of Byliner.com

*****

PARKING: Mesa Parking Structure for visitors.
http://today.uci.edu/pdf/UCI_09_map_vis_pkg.pdf

Campus Map
http://today.uci.edu/pdf/UCI_09_map_campus.pdf

www.humanities.uci.edu/litjourn
www.humanities.uci.edu/kiosk
www.ljdigital.tumblr.com
Twitter: @UCILitJ


PRESS RELEASE: UC IRVINE LITERARY JOURNALISM TO HOST ONE-DAY
SYMPOSIUM ON “DIGITAL STORYTELLING,” 4/18/13 11-6:30 PM

--FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--

By Erika Hayasaki

In 1946, John Hersey published the 31,000-word narrative nonfiction piece,
“Hiroshima,” which filled an entire issue of The New Yorker, and later went
on to become a short book. In the decades that followed, dedicating that
much print space to a single journalism story in a newspaper or magazine
didn’t happen very often, and in recent years, with cutbacks in newspapers
and magazines, some feared longform journalism would die altogether.

But a shift toward e-reading over the last three years has led to an
unexpected reemergence of the mid-length story — those pieces too long to be
articles, too short to be traditional books. In the digital age, the 10,000-
to 30,000-word story has staked its place as a viable literary form. These
stories are now marketed digitally between 99 cents and $5----longform
journalism that fits in your pocket or purse, designed to be read within a
few hours.

This month, the UCI community will discuss, debate and celebrate emerging
trends in digital narrative and storytelling, highlighting a
cross-disciplinary interest in new media and technology. “Digital
Storytelling: A Symposium,” will be hosted by UCI’s Literary
Journalism Program, the Department of History, and the Center for Excellence
in Writing and Communication, with additional sponsorship from the
Humanities Collective, and staff support from the Department of English.

The one-day symposium will take place on Thursday, April 18 on the UCI
campus, bringing together local and national figures working in high-profile
positions in digital and traditional media and fostering connections between
academic and public writers to discuss questions including: Is the novella
making a comeback? How do storytelling techniques such as the narrative arc
and the cliffhanger evolve with these changing formats? Is there a future
for the traditional book? How can writers make a living in this new era of
publishing? How have mainstream publishers and newspapers embraced or
rejected digital formats? What is the difference between a Kindle Single and
a Nook Snap? Is an Apple Quick Read as quick as a Kobo ShortRead? And just
how long, or short, are #Longreads?

“Digital Storytelling: A Symposium,” will feature guest speakers including
Mark Bryant, the editor-in-chief of Byliner, a San Francisco-based company
that launched in April 2011, devoted specifically to longform (or
mid-length) journalism and fiction. The company has seen unprecedented
success, with one of its nonfiction stories making it to the top of The New
York Times bestseller list last year — an impressive feat, since the
20,000-word narrative was competing against full-length traditional books.
This year, two of its stories are National Magazine Award finalists.

The event will also feature speakers from The Atavist, a Brooklyn-based
digital publisher that has layered music, maps, videos, audio, and animation
into its nonfiction narratives. The Atavist will offer a digital
storytelling “master class” open to the campus and public. Other guest
speakers will include editors from the Los Angeles Review of Books, New
York-based Longform.org, Noir (a Los Angeles-based digital publication for
crime stories), and Matter, a science and technology-oriented longform
journalism organization that raised over $140,000 through Kickstarter. Other
panelists include Mike Sager, a bestselling author and award-winning
reporter for Esquire magazine who also founded The Sager Group,
a consortium of multi-media artists and writers. There will also be a live
Longform podcast interview conducted on-site with National Magazine award
winner Vanessa Grigoriadis, a contributing editor at New York Magazine,
Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair.

The UCI symposium will build upon topics discussed last year in a lecture
course, “Narratives in a Digital Age,” launched by the school’s Literary
Journalism Program. The popular course welcomed 70 tweeting, tumblring,
instagramming, facebooking students who arrived on the first day armed with
their devices: about 37% of the class owned I-Pads, Kindles, Nooks or other
tablet reading devices, according to an informal survey.

However, 56% still preferred reading on a printed page, while 28% preferred
digital, either on a tablet, computer or phone, and 16% liked reading both
print and digital, and. However, most students still valued the paper page —
72% of them believed the future of publishing would be a blend of print and
digital, while the rest believed it would be solely digital.

Whatever the future of publishing looks like, one point can’t be ignored:
“The new digital venues and publications convincingly demonstrate that
long-form narrative nonfiction can survive and flourish in the age of the
Internet,” said Barry Siegel, Director of the UC Irvine Literary Journalism
Program. “ Despite epochal change, literary journalists still have many
places—in fact, more places than ever—where they can tell their story.”

EVENT DETAILS:
APRIL 18, 2013
11 A.M.-6:30 P.M.
UC IRVINE SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES: HUMANITIES GATEWAY AND
HUMANITIES INSTRUCTIONAL BUILDING
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC--ALL WELCOME

For more information on Digital Storytelling: A Symposium or to attend the
event please contact the Assistant Director of Literary Journalism, Patricia
Pierson, piersonp@uci.edu, or Assistant Professor of Literary Journalism
Erika Hayasaki ehayasak@uci.edu.