Objects as Stories and the Shape of Our Attachments
An Exploration of Objects Through Work Talks
Professor Ander Monson introduces the event
Alex Montoya
Who are we without our possessions? Enlightened individuals, exempt from consumerist desires and personal treasures? So overrated. Objects are in at the U of A English Department that celebrated Objects Week from Monday October 12th to Saturday October 17th.
In celebration of objects on October 16th, the Tucson Essay Club hosted a Work Talk event: Objects Edition, featuring several U of A students and faculty including Creative Writing Professor Ander Monson and Assistant Professor of Animation Nicole Antebi. The Essay Club was honored to also showcase visiting filmmaker and curator Jessica Oreck of the Office of Collecting & Design.
Work Talks Work Talks are fun flash presentations; the current being themed around objects and our relationships with them. Each speaker discussed the interest they have in certain objects, from a single strand of deergrass to a vintage Stetson hat. Jessica Oreck brought in two amazing and equally ancient items: a Mesozoic stone smoothed by the stomach of a dinosaur, and 80’s Avon makeup. Ander Monson did an incredible performance of showing us all his very specific and random T-shirts, and Nilah Armand went into vivid detail on the experience of pulling up deergrass and getting sticky “plant juice” hands in the process.
There’s a lot of laughter and silliness in the objects we hold onto and treasure, but there is also sentiment and attachment. Samantha Sockness discussed in her Work Talk the hazard of Estate Sales, of selling and owning things that belonged to someone else. Sockness brought with her a beautiful jar with monarch butterflies inside, collected by her aunt who has now passed. Sockness tells the audience, “the only certainty in life is death and estate sales.”
Our attachments personify us, define us, reveal too much about us and what we love. The English Department celebrates this, and all else that inspires our writers, readers and students every term. For additional interest in Objects, we encourage you to look at Ander Monson’s new book, Significant Objects 2026 Season One, containing 45 different objects, stories and authors of each. For additional information on the Tucson Essay Club and this book, you may visit https://tucsonessayclub.org/significant-objects-2026/. A huge thanks to the Tucson Essay Club and the Tucson Business Center for being lovely hosts.