Highlights - MADELEINE WATTS - Author of The Inland Sea

"I think one thing that is not talked about enough is the importance of the arts and the importance of the humanities. And on the university level, the defunding of these sorts of programs and the kind of devaluing of that knowledge is an enormous loss. The arts are what tell us who we are. They're for the soul and they make being alive worthwhile. And the importance of making connections and finding a way to reach others and communicate and connect by trying to be honest and complicated and complex - because I truly believe that without those things, whatever future we can imagine for ourselves is going to be paltry. And it won't be imaginative. And without the humanities and the arts, it doesn't make me feel hopeful about the future."