The Lab: Experiments in Writing Across Genre with author Matthew Clark Davison
Monday, February 23, 2026
7:00–8:00 PM
Matthew Clark Davison (co-author, with Alice LaPlante, of The Lab: Experiments in Writing Across Genre) will join us at Bloomsbury Books for an interactive author talk for writers, readers, and anyone curious about creative process.
Turning Obsession into Art with Aesthetic Force
Novelist, memoirist, and educator Matthew Clark Davison will talk about how great writing doesn’t begin with form—it begins with obsession. But how do we transform raw obsession into work that stuns, unsettles, and compels? How do we move beyond explanation toward aesthetic force—the power that makes art unforgettable?
Drawing on ideas from Sarah Lewis on aesthetic force, along with generative exercises from The Lab, Davison will explore how fiction, memoir, and hybrid work thrive on contrast, specificity, and tension between what we think is beautiful and what truly moves us. The evening will include an overview of the book’s interactive prompts and practical ways to use experimentation to push your work forward.
All levels and genres welcome.
Matthew Clark Davison is the author of the novel Doubting Thomas (Amble Press, 2021), named a “Must-Read Book by Queer Authors” by Esquire, and the co-author, with bestselling writer Alice LaPlante, of The Lab: Experiments in Writing Across Genre (W.W. Norton, 2025). Together Davison and LaPlante recently co-founded The Lab Creative Writing, where they help writers reconnect with their passions and obsessions, deepen the aesthetics of works-in-progress, and discover the meaning and shape of their narratives through retreats, online workshops, one-on-one mentoring, and their craft book. His essays and stories have appeared in numerous literary magazines and journals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Guernica, and LitHub. He is Emeritus Faculty in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University