Writing at the intersections of literary + contemporary arts practices

Bringing together writers whose work sits at the intersection between literary, contemporary art, and independent publishing practices, the discussion will focus on their distinct approaches and methods of experimental and collaborative modes of writing, teaching, and learning, and what the role of independent publishers is in supporting and platforming these practices.

Copies of recently published titles The Time of the Novel by Lara Mimosa Montes (Wendy’s Subway, 2025) and The Longest Way to Eat a Melon (Sarabande Books, 2025) by Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross will be available.

Co-presented with Wendy’s Subway

Lara Mimosa Montes is a writer, editor, and teaching artist whose practice and experiences span the fields of alternative publishing and experimental writing. She is most recently the author of The Time of the Novel (Wendy’s Subway, 2025) in addition to two previous books of poetry, THRESHOLES (Coffee House Press, 2020) and The Somnambulist (Horse Less Press, 2016). Her writing has appeared in BOMB, Fence, Poetry, The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of artist residencies and fellowships from MacDowell, Jentel, Lighthouse Works, and Headlands Center for the Arts. She is a faculty member of the Creative Writing MFA program at Pacific Northwest College of Art. She also teaches in XE: Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement Master’s program at NYU. She was born in the Bronx.

Rachel Valinsky is a writer, editor, and translator based in New York. She is co-founder and Artistic Director of Wendy’s Subway, a nonprofit arts and literary reading room, writing space, and independent publisher, and Director of Publications at the Center for Art, Research, and Alliances (CARA). Rachel has curated exhibitions, performances, and public programs at The Kitchen, where she was Curatorial Fellow (2017–18); The Queens Museum as Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow (2018-19); the Poetry Project as Friday Night Reading Series Co-Curator (2017-19); the Brooklyn Academy of Music; and elsewhere. Her writing on performance, dance, and moving image work has appeared in Artforum, Art in America, BOMB, frieze, e-flux criticism, and elsewhere and been published by the Berlinale International Film Festival, Danspace Project, Sternberg Books, among others. Her translations have appeared from Semiotext(e), Editions Lutanie, Pluto Books, and Editions 1989. Rachel holds an MPhil in Art History from the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and also teaches courses in performance studies, art writing, and critical thinking at The New School.

Sheryda Warrener is the author of the poetry collections Hard Feelings, Floating Is Everything, and most recently, Test Piece, which was shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Prize. She is a lecturer in the School of Creative Writing at UBC, and is the creator of The Provocation Collection, a series of material prompts for writers designed in collaboration with artists.

Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross is a writer and editor based in Vancouver, the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. Her fiction, poetry, essays, and art criticism are frequently located at the intersections of experimental writing and artistic practice, and have appeared in BOMB, C Mag, The Ex-Puritan, Fence, Mousse, and elsewhere, as well as in the chapbooks Mayonnaise and Drawings on Yellow Paper (with Katie Lyle). By day, she works as an editor at The Capilano Review. By night, she drafts suspended scenarios and propositions. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and a BFA in Studio Art from Simon Fraser University. The Longest Way to Eat a Melon, her debut collection of fictions, is forthcoming from Sarabande Books in 2025.