WritersFest:Odds, Ends, and Exile: Essays in Focus
Discover the remarkable range and emotional power of the personal essay during Odds, Ends, and Exile: Essays in Focus, part of the 2026 Kingston WritersFest. Award-winning writers Richard Kelly Kemick and Jamaluddin Aram will join Krista Foss for an engaging exploration of a literary form capable of informing, delighting and profoundly changing minds.
Richard Kelly Kemick will discuss Decadence, a deeply personal work he describes as an “accidental memoir.” Praised by Publishers Weekly as a “weird and rewarding ride,” the book demonstrates how an essay can move between memory, observation and discovery while resisting simple categorization.
Kemick’s writing shows how seemingly unrelated moments can come together to reveal something larger about a life. Through the flexibility of the personal essay, individual experiences become opportunities to examine identity, relationships and the unexpected paths that shape the person behind the page.
Filmmaker and writer Jamaluddin Aram presents The Blood of Things, his debut collection exploring writing, exile and the fall of Kabul. His essays consider the meaning of home, the experience of displacement and the complicated relationship between personal memory and historical upheaval.
Together, Kemick and Aram reveal the personal essay’s extraordinary elasticity. Their work moves from intimate reflection to major cultural and political questions, showing how individual stories can open conversations about belonging, loss, history and change. Although their subjects and approaches differ, both writers demonstrate the power of precise, thoughtful prose to transform experience into something shared.
Joined by Krista Foss, the authors will discuss their books, their creative processes and the possibilities offered by the essay form. Readers will gain insight into how writers select, arrange and interpret moments from life—and how an essay can become much more than a straightforward record of events.
This afternoon conversation is an excellent opportunity for readers, writers and anyone interested in memoir or creative nonfiction to hear from two distinctive literary voices. Join Kingston WritersFest for an event celebrating essays that challenge expectations, cross boundaries and bring new meaning to the fragments of personal and collective history.
Event Details
Date: Thursday, October 1, 2026
Time: 1:30–3:00 p.m.
Venue: Limestone C, Kingston Marriott
Address: 285 King Street East, Kingston
Featuring: Richard Kelly Kemick and Jamaluddin Aram
With: Krista Foss
