This piece ran on 2/12/2014 in Poets & Writers

Speculative fiction writer Bonnie Stufflebeam is shaking writers and visual artists of their respective comfort zones with a twist on the traditional art show. From March 1 to April 1, submissions will be accepted for the third annual Art & Words, Stufflebeam’s collaborative exhibit of art and writing, which brings together works of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and visual art at a gallery in Fort Worth, Texas. But for those writers and artists whose work is accepted, the project doesn’t end there: Each selected writer and artist is also challenged to create a brand-new work—for writers, a piece inspired by a work of visual art, and for artists, a new work inspired by a piece of writing.

In the video for a successful fund-raising campaign on Kickstarter in 2012, Stufflebeam compared the literary and visual-art communities to boats that can support and reinforce each other using the unique strengths of each form.

“It’s easy for artistic people to get stuck in ruts where they’re exploring the same subjects and sticking to what they’re comfortable with,” Stufflebeam says. “Using a visual source for a writer or a written source for a visual artist is a good way to think about the creative process in new ways.”

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