What do you do when you haven’t read a book that speaks to the specifics of how you’re feeling? If you’re Sheila Heti (Motherhood and How Should a Person Be?), you write one that does. Her latest novel Pure Colour fictionalizes this celebrated author’s private encounters with grief into the story of the world’s first draft, where a woman named Mira turns into a leaf. Join Heti and filmmaker Jennifer Reeder for a conversation about what it means to live a first draft life in a first draft world, making (and revising) first draft art. Chicago musician Lia Kohl concludes this program with a brief solo cello performance inspired by Heti's Pure Colour.

This annual lecture is supported by the Doris Conant Endowment for Programs on Women and Culture.