Writers talk social conscience

Years after journalist Andrew Lam fled the Vietnam War at age 11, it frustrated him to watch… Years after journalist Andrew Lam fled the Vietnam War at age 11, it frustrated him to watch the history he and other Vietnamese refugees experienced being recorded by individuals outside the Vietnamese community.

“There were no writers in the Vietnamese community, and I felt I had a responsibility to respond to the public about my heritage and where I come from,” he said.

As a result, he decided to skip medical school and become a writer. Lam relayed his experiences last night as part of a panel discussion about the role of social consciousness in writing.

Yesterday’s panel discussion, titled “Writing and Social Engagement,” was part of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series. Lam – along with writers Elmaz Abinader, Tim Bascom and Patricia Jabbeh Wesley – told stories about their trials and experiences as socially conscious writers to a packed room in the Cathedral of Learning.

A native of Liberia, much of Wesley’s poetry relates to her experiences surviving and ultimately escaping the Liberian Civil War of the 1980s.

She initially wrote as a way to heal from the war, but her work took on a more public dimension when she realized she wanted to provide a voice for her country and show the world Liberia’s pain and suffering.

Wesley noted that in her culture, writing is viewed as an art that is not owned by the individual artist – it belongs to the community.

In an open floor discussion, second-year MFA student Adrianna Ramirez asked the panel about the risks involved when writers open their lives and the lives of those around them to public scrutiny.

Overall, all the panelists agreed that the benefits of writing stories that have the ability to touch and influence large numbers of people outweigh any potential harm.

“Every time we write, it becomes part of a historical tapestry and gives our lives meaning and power,” Abinader said.

For second-year MFA student Cara Hayden, the panel presentation encouraged her to continue with her struggles in writing personal pieces.

“Writing about people is complicated,” she said. “You have to deal with sensitive issues of race, class and gender and navigate it in a way in which you stay true to yourself and to your audience”.

According to Wesley, young writers can relieve such problems if they write their stories simply and by their own accord.

“If you write about your world naturally and honestly and from your own context, the story comes together,” Wesley said. For English writing professor Faith Adiele, who helped organize the panel, achieving social significance is important for every beginning writer.

“The challenge in becoming a good writer is learning how to take our writing out of our diaries and transforming it from a strictly personal work into a work that speaks to everyone,” she said.