The Creative Process · Arts, Culture & Society: Books, Film, Music, TV, Art, Writing, Creativity, Education, Environment, Theatre, Dance, LGBTQ, Climate Change, Social Justice, Spirituality, Feminism, Tech, Sustainability

Novelist and short-story writer Yiyun Li discusses her two homelands – the China she left when she came to the University of Iowa to study immunology, and America, which has been her home for almost 20 years. In novels like Kinder than Solitude and The Vagrants, and short story collections A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, she has impressed critics and fellow writers with the grace and subtlety of her writing, even as she tells stories so truthful and critical that she won’t publish her books in China. Michel Faber, writing for The Guardian, said, “Yiyun has the talent, the vision and the respect for life’s insoluble mysteries...[she] is the real deal.”Li has received numerous awards, including Whiting Award, Lannan Foundation Residency fellow, 2010 MacArthur Foundation fellow, 2014 Benjamin H. Danks Award from American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2015 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Prize, among others. She was selected by Granta as one of the 21 Best Young American Novelists under 35, and was named by The New Yorker as one of the top 20 writers under 40. She has served on the jury panel for Man Booker International Prize, National Book Award, PEN/Hemingway Award, and other. She is a contributing editor to the Brooklyn-based literary magazine, A Public Space.www.creativeprocess.info

FX Harsono, one of Indonesia’s most revered contemporary artists, has been a central figure of the Indonesian art scene for over 40 years. In 1975, he was among a group of young artists who founded Indonesia’s Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru (New Art Movement), which emphasized an experimental, conceptual approach, the use of everyday materials, and engagement with social and political issues. Over the course of recent decades that have seen enormous transformations in Indonesia, Harsono has continuously explored the role of the artist in society, in particular his relationship to history. During Indonesia’s dictatorial Suharto regime (1967-98), his installation and performance works were powerfully eloquent acts of protest against an oppressive state apparatus. The fall of the regime in 1998, which triggered rioting and widespread violence, mainly against Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese minority, prompted an introspective turn in Harsono’s artistic practice. He embarked on an ongoing investigation of his own family history and the position of minorities in society, especially his own Chinese-Indonesian community. The recovery of buried or repressed histories, cultures, and identities – and the part that the artist can play in this process – have remained a significant preoccupation. Through looking into his own past, Harsono has touched on concerns that resonate globally, foregrounding fundamental issues that are central to the formation of group and personal identities in our rapidly changing world.www.creativeprocess.info

FX Harsono, one of Indonesia’s most revered contemporary artists, has been a central figure of the Indonesian art scene for over 40 years. In 1975, he was among a group of young artists who founded Indonesia’s Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru (New Art Movement), which emphasized an experimental, conceptual approach, the use of everyday materials, and engagement with social and political issues. Over the course of recent decades that have seen enormous transformations in Indonesia, Harsono has continuously explored the role of the artist in society, in particular his relationship to history. During Indonesia’s dictatorial Suharto regime (1967-98), his installation and performance works were powerfully eloquent acts of protest against an oppressive state apparatus. The fall of the regime in 1998, which triggered rioting and widespread violence, mainly against Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese minority, prompted an introspective turn in Harsono’s artistic practice. He embarked on an ongoing investigation of his own family history and the position of minorities in society, especially his own Chinese-Indonesian community. The recovery of buried or repressed histories, cultures, and identities – and the part that the artist can play in this process – have remained a significant preoccupation. Through looking into his own past, Harsono has touched on concerns that resonate globally, foregrounding fundamental issues that are central to the formation of group and personal identities in our rapidly changing world.www.creativeprocess.info

Kate Mueth is the Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning dance theater company The Neo-Political Cowgirls. In their 13th year of devised theater making, NPC continues to present bold, "Mind bending" theater that seeks to deepen and challenge the ways in which audiences experience theater. Committed to shining light on female-identifying theater makers, NPC produces and supports work by women+ in a myriad of ways to create parity on the stage. NPC's Arts Education Outreach programming has been called "Crucial to our community" for their tireless work in using the Arts to creatively address social (in)justice, education and conflict. She trained in the prestigious Arts Leadership program at Lincoln Center, Circle in the Square Conservatory and Shakespeare & Company, and is Co-VP of Communications of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She has worked as actress/director/ choreographer with such luminaries as Blythe Danner, Tony Walton, Simon Jones, Cathy Curtin, Liz Larsen, Heather Lind, Joe Pintauro, Joy Behar, and others at Lincoln Center, John Drew Theater, Bay Street Theater and other notable venues.· www.npcowgirls.org· www.creativeprocess.info

Kate Mueth is the Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning dance theater company The Neo-Political Cowgirls. In their 13th year of devised theater making, NPC continues to present bold, "Mind bending" theater that seeks to deepen and challenge the ways in which audiences experience theater. Committed to shining light on female-identifying theater makers, NPC produces and supports work by women+ in a myriad of ways to create parity on the stage. NPC's Arts Education Outreach programming has been called "Crucial to our community" for their tireless work in using the Arts to creatively address social (in)justice, education and conflict. She trained in the prestigious Arts Leadership program at Lincoln Center, Circle in the Square Conservatory and Shakespeare & Company, and is Co-VP of Communications of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She has worked as actress/director/ choreographer with such luminaries as Blythe Danner, Tony Walton, Simon Jones, Cathy Curtin, Liz Larsen, Heather Lind, Joe Pintauro, Joy Behar, and others at Lincoln Center, John Drew Theater, Bay Street Theater and other notable venues.· www.npcowgirls.org· www.creativeprocess.info

Tobias Wolff grew up in Washington State. He taught English and creative writing at Stanford. He has received the Story Prize, both the Rea Award and PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story, Los Angeles Times Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the National Medal of the Arts from President Obama in 2015. He is the author of the memoir This Boy’s Life. His novels and short story collections include Old School, The Barracks Thief, In Pharaoh’s Army, In the Garden of the North American Martyrs, Back in the World, and The Night in Question.
· www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/33605/tobias-wolff
· www.creativeprocess.info

Tobias Wolff grew up in Washington State. He taught English and creative writing at Stanford. He has received the Story Prize, both the Rea Award and PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story, Los Angeles Times Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the National Medal of the Arts from President Obama in 2015. He is the author of the memoir This Boy’s Life. His novels and short story collections include Old School, The Barracks Thief, In Pharaoh’s Army, In the Garden of the North American Martyrs, Back in the World, and The Night in Question.
· www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/33605/tobias-wolff
· www.creativeprocess.info

Richard Flood serves on the International Leadership Council and Ideas City Initiative at the New Museum. For nine years, he was the museum’s Director of Special Projects and Curator at Large, and from 2005 to 2010, he served as Chief Curator. Prior to this, he was Chief Curator and Deputy Director at the Walker Art Center. He has curated notable exhibitions of the work of Rivane Neuenschwander, Sigmar Polke, and other artists. Flood previously served as the director of Barbara Gladstone Gallery, curator at P.S. 1, and Managing Editor of Artforum. He has taught at the Rhode Island Institute of Art and Design, The Royal College of Art in London, and the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. His writing has appeared frequently in Artforum, Parkett, and Frieze. www.newmuseum.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Richard Flood serves on the International Leadership Council and Ideas City Initiative at the New Museum. For nine years, he was the museum’s Director of Special Projects and Curator at Large, and from 2005 to 2010, he served as Chief Curator. Prior to this, he was Chief Curator and Deputy Director at the Walker Art Center. He has curated notable exhibitions of the work of Rivane Neuenschwander, Sigmar Polke, and other artists. Flood previously served as the director of Barbara Gladstone Gallery, curator at P.S. 1, and Managing Editor of Artforum. He has taught at the Rhode Island Institute of Art and Design, The Royal College of Art in London, and the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. His writing has appeared frequently in Artforum, Parkett, and Frieze. · www.newmuseum.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and most recently, The Last Hundred Years Trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. She is also the author of several works of nonfiction and books for young adults. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has also received the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature. She lives in Northern California.· www.creativeprocess.info