On 13-15 November, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin is hosting what sounds like a fascinating symposium: "Creating a Usable Past: Writers, Archives, & Institutions." The description reads in part "The symposium will encourage writers, archivists, agents, library directors, and scholars to examine the ways in which they are both actively and passively engaged in creating a literary and personal past for future generations to study."
Speakers will include writers Denis Johnson, Tim O'Brien and Amy Tan; manuscript dealers Glenn Horowitz and Rick Gekoski; and a number of archivists and library directors from institutions in the U.S. and England. Dana Gioia, the current head of the National Endowment for the Arts, will deliver the keynote address.
I won't be able to attend, since that weekend is the big Boston Book Fair, but it does sound like an excellent event.
