Registration Opens for 2008 Flair Symposium, "Creating A Usable Past: Writers, Archives and Institutions"

March 18, 2008

AUSTIN, Texas — The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin opens registration for the seventh Fleur Cowles Flair Symposium, "Creating a Usable Past: Writers, Archives and Institutions," scheduled for Nov. 13-15.

Symposium registration information, including limited discounted student registration, is available online.

The symposium will examine the role of archives in preserving and contributing to our understanding of culture. Panel topics include "Writers on the Future of Reading," "Building the Archive," "The Archive on the Market," "Transforming the Archive," "The Changing Shape of Archives" and "Looking Forward to Preserve the Past."

"The belief in the value of studying the creative process continues to be at the heart of the work of many archives and research libraries," said Ransom Center Director Thomas F. Staley. "During the Flair Symposium's three-day event, writers, archivists, dealers, agents and scholars will seek to understand the forces that create, protect, provide access to and interpret literary archives."

International participants and speakers range from authors Lee Blessing, Tim O'Brien, Denis Johnson and Amy Tan to National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia, Bodleian Library Associate Director Richard Ovenden, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Director Frank Turner, Emory's Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library Director Stephen Enniss and Staley.

The symposium will be held in conjunction with the Ransom Center's exhibition "The Mystique of the Archive," which uses the lens of the Harry Ransom Center to explore the archiving of our culture and the culture surrounding archives. Drawing on the Center's extensive holdings of the imaginative creations of writers and artists, the exhibition illustrates the diverse nature of archives and their myriad uses.

The Flair Symposium, held biennially at the Ransom Center, honors the ideals set forth by Fleur Cowles and her landmark Flair magazine.

For more information, contact: Jennifer Tisdale, Harry Huntt Ransom Humanities Research Center, 512 471 8949;  Alicia Dietrich, Harry Huntt Ransom Humanities Research Center, 512-232-3667.