Fall 2008 Events
September
September 3 8:00 PM
BBQ at 7:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
No, your mom isn't here, but we'll greet you with open arms and shower you with attention. And maybe even brownies. Don't miss the first Writers House event of the year, our annual Welcome Back Open Mic. Come and read your own work, or work you really like, or just listen to others' work. It's really not any work. We promise. Catch up with friends or catch some new ones. First year students: This is a great way to get involved in the Writers House community, so don't be shy. I mean, look at her... really. This event is free and open to the Franklin and Marshall Community.
Tuesday, September 9 8:00 PM
At The Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
Katie Ford is a professor of English at Franklin and Marshall College and poetry editor at The New Orleans Review. She will read from her latest book, Colosseum (Graywolf, 2008), which explores her displacement from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, as well as other sites of ruination both historical and contemporary. Ford earned a Masters of Divinity from Harvard and her MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of English and is free and open to the public. Read a few of Katie Ford's poems
Wednesday, September 17 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
Lydia Davis, winner of a MacArthur Genius Award for writing, is an internationally recognized virtuoso of the short story. She has published six short story collections, including Varieties of Disturbance, 2007. Join Davis for a luncheon and informal conversation. This event is co-sponsored by the Lancaster Literary Guild and is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Please RSVP to 717-291-4244.
Thursday, September 18 4:30 PM
At Stahr Auditorium
Szabo, a graphic artist who emigrated to the US from Hungary in the 1980s, founded and edits WittyWorld International Cartoon Magazine. An international traveler, he is preparing a book on America's image in cartoons. Join Sazbo for a presentation on this important and timely project. This event is co-sponsored by the International Studies Program and the Center for Liberal Arts and Society.
Klehr Center for Jewish Life Reading Group
Thursday, September 18 7:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
(We are thrilled to serve as the interim location for the Jewish Life Reading Group until the greatly anticipated Klehr Center is open!)
Dalia Sofer, The Septembers of Shiraz
This discussion is open to the F&M and local communities. Discounted copies the works may be purchased at the F&M Bookstore. F&M students may pick up free copies of each selection at the F&M Bookstore. For more information, please contact ralph.taber@faandm.edu
Sunday, September 21 Noon
Stahr Auditorium
Reception and book signing to follow at the Writers House
Daniel Frick, director of the Writing Center and senior adjunct assistant professor of English at Franklin and Marshall College, will read from his recent book Reinventing Richard Nixon: A Cultural History of an American Obsession. Drawing on references from All in the Family to Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Frick shows how Nixon has become one of America's most durable and multifaceted icons in the fierce debates over the import and meaning of the last sixty years of national life. This event will be filmed by C-SPAN to appear on Book TV and is free and open to the public. Please join us at the Writers House for a reception and book signing afterwards. Read more about Reinventing Richard Nixon
Tuesday, September 23 8:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
A poet since the age of eight, Hamutal Bar Yosef expresses the trauma of bereavement and the miracle of inner survival. She has published nine collections of poetry and has won numerous prizes for her work, including the Jerusalem Prize and the President of Israel Prize. Her poems have been translated into English, French, German, Russian, Ukraine, Arabic and Yiddish. This event is co-sponsored by Judaic Studies and is free and open to the public. Read a few of Hamutal Bar Yosef's poems
October
Thursday, October 2 8 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
In conjunction with a new interdisciplinary course in Comparative Literature, “Doctors and Patients in Arts and Literature,” poets and physicians Bill Rector, Marc Straus '65 and Jeffrey Kirchner will give a reading and speak informally about the relationships between poetry and the healing arts. Bill Rector is poetry editor for the Yale Humanities in Medicine Journal. Jeffrey Kirchner of Lancaster General Hospital specializes in the treatment of patients with AIDS. This is event is co-sponsored by Comparative Literary Studies and is free and open to the public.
Timothy Gray '86: Writing and Teaching in New York and San Francisco
Tuesday, October 7 4:30 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
Tim Gray is an associate professor at Staten Island College and author of Gary Snyder and the Pacific Rim: Creating Counter Cultural Community (Iowa University Press). He has a forthcoming book entitled Urban Pastoral: Natural Currents in the New York School. Professor Gray is a general expert on the authors of the Beat Generation, most notably Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac. His primary focus is on the relationship between place and narrative, especially poetry in New York and San Francisco. This is event is co-sponsored by the English Department and is free and open to the public.
Wednesday, October 8 12PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
Susan Jacoby, a fellow of the New York Public Library's Center for Scholars and Writers and the program director of the Center for Inquiry in New York City, paints an impassioned, tough-minded portrait of anti-intellectualism and its threat to American Democracy in her new book, The Age of American Unreason. As reporter and contemporary culture critic, Jacoby talks about finding oneself as a writer. This event is free and open to the public and co-sponsored by CLAS. Free lunch provided by Fair Trade Cafe.
Thursday, October 9 8PM
Barshinger Life Sciences and Philosophy Building
Judy Wicks is owner and founder of Philadelphia’s 25-year-old White Dog Café and a national leader in the local living-economies movement. She is the founder of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia and has won numerous awards for her social activism, including the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the year in 2005 and Oprah Magazine’s “5 Amazingly Gifted and Giving Food Professionals.” This event is co-sponsored by the Susquehanna Sustainable Business Network and Buy Fresh Buy Local and is free and open to the public.
Friday, October 10 3:00-3:50 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
Alumni filmmakers Marc Meyers ’94 and Randy Wilkins '02 entertain questions about careers in the film industry as part of the Homecoming Weekend Alumni Film Festival. Meyers' film, Approaching Union Square, has been licensed for screening on the Sundance Channel beginning in November of 2008. Wilkins just completed work as cameraman and actor on Spike Lee's latest film. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Theater, Dance and Film, Career Services and is free and open to the public.
Wednesday, October 15 4:30-5:30 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
Writers House community meetings bring students, staff and faculty together to imagine and oversee programs and business of the Writers House. Food will be served. This event is open to members of the Franklin & Marshall community.
Wednesday, October 15 8:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
The beat goes on! It's a night of visionary enlightenment with the usual suspects from the 1950s Beat generation, such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. Bring your favorite piece of Beat literature to read, or just sit back and relish the apple pie, ice cream, and beatnik vibe. This event is co-sponsored by the Art Department and is free and open to the public.
a nationally touring exhibition featuring portraits of eminent writers
Wednesday, October 22 4:30 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
Since the early 1970s, Nancy Crampton has been a preeminent portraitist of literary figures such as Tom Wolfe, John Updike, Maya Angelou, Susan Sontag and many others. Her photographs – authentic and made without preconceptions – will be shown at the Writers House through December 12. Join us for a talk and reception with the artist. This event is co-sponsored by the Phillips Museum and is free and open to the public.
Klehr Center for Jewish Life Reading Group
Thursday, October 23 7:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
(We are thrilled to serve as the interim location for the Jewish Life Reading Group until the greatly anticipated Klehr Center is open!)
Contemporary Jewish Voices I: Short Stories by David Bezmozgis, Nathan Englander and Gary Shteyngart
This discussion is open to the F&M and local communities. Discounted copies of the work may be purchased at the F&M Bookstore. F&M students may pick up free copies of the selection at the F&M Bookstore. For more information, please contact ralph.taber@fandm.edu
Tuesday, October 28 4:30 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
2008 Hausman lecturer Yusef Komunyaka leads an informal discussion on the craft of writing poetry. Komunyakaa is the author of numerous collections of poetry and has received the William Faulkner Prize from the Université de Rennes, the Thomas Forcade Award, the Hanes Poetry Prize, fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Louisiana Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was elected a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets in 1999 and is currently Distinguished Senior Poet in New York University’s graduate creative writing program. This event is free and open to the public. Read a few of Yusef Komunyakaa's poems.
Wednesday, October 29 12:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
Francine du Plessix Gray, wife of the late artist Cleve Gray, is both an admired biographer and novelist. Her latest work, Them: A Memoir of Parents, recounts her tumultuous relationship with her parents, poor Russian emigres, who became the grandest power couple of the New York City fashion world. Du Plessix Gray is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker and a short-listed author for the Pulitzer prize. This event is co-sponsored by the Phillips Museum and is free and open to the public.
Read an excerpt from Them
Read an interview in New York Magazine
Thursday, October 30 8:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
Attack of two Eliots! Well, not an attack, really, just some expert readings of the Wasteland. Join us again this year for the only night when dead writers rise from the grave (we're not talking about the morning after that all-nighter you pulled trying to finish your midterm paper). So, come dressed as your favorite dead writer and read from his or her work. Can you dig it? This event is free and open to the public.
November
Mondays, November 3, 10, 17, and 24 7:00-9:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writer's House
Anyone who likes Shakespeare, who genuinely enjoys the Bard’s magnificent words, is invited to come and read aloud from the canon. We’ll read scenes and speeches from the plays, as well as selections from his sonnets and other poetry. No experience or expertise of any kind required — only enthusiasm! Print-outs of the selected readings will be available at the Writers House. Refreshments provided.
Tuesdays, November 4, 11, 18, and 25 12:00 PM
Why spend years writing your novel when you can crank one out in a month? Yes, you'll write a lot of fluff, but you will also learn to take risks, lower your expectations, and write without inhibition. You’ll have from November 1st to November 30th at midnight to finish your 175 pages (50,000 words). During that time, bring your pages to the Writers House every Tuesday for inspiration from Creative Writing Faculty and fellow NaNoWriMo writers, or to read aloud, discuss, and of course, churn out more pages. This event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided.
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
In its 33rd year, Actors From The London Stage is one of the oldest established touring Shakespeare theater companies in the world. Coming from such prestigious companies as the Royal Shakespeare Company; the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain; and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, these classically trained actors visit the Writers House for a reception and intimate sonnet reading. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Theater, Dance and Film and is free and open to the public. Read some Keats and Shakespeare sonnets that will be performed.
Tuesday, November 18 8:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
As part of International Education Week, students and faculty will share literary texts in various languages. Join us for global poetry and prose, coffee and tea -and some cosmopolitan pastry. This event is co-sponsored by International Studies, International Programs and Plume, Franklin and Marshall's foreign language magazine. It is free and open to the public.
Wednesday, November 19 6:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
All semester-long we cross paths on campus, communicate over email, and bump into each other at readings. Now, it’s at last time for all of us — writers, readers, friends—to come together and share words over a home-cooked feast, delight in faces that we haven’t seen for far too long, and watch as faculty duel with truculent (and succulent) turkeys. This event is open to the Franklin & Marshall Community. For more information, to bring a dish, or to RSVP, contact us at writershouse@fandm.edu
Wednesday, November 19 8:00 PM (Directly following Thanksgiving Dinner)
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
How about some funk with that pumpkin pie? Stick around after Thanksgiving Dinner for "Speak Up," a collection of spoken word pieces performed live by aspiring young poets. This event is made possible by the Danielle Ganek '85 Student Inititaives Fund.
Monday, November 24 8:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writer's House
Experimental poet Oni Buchanan holds an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers Workshop and has published two volumes of poetry: What Animal, winner of the University of Georgia Press Contemporary Series Competition, and Spring, selected by Mark Doty as a winner of the 2007 National Poetry Series Open Competition. Her poems have been featured in several anthologies, including The Best American Poetry 2004, and in numerous journals across the country. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of English and is free and open to the public. Read her kinetic poem, "The Mandrake Vehicles," on permanent display on the Conduit website.
December
Wednesday, December 3 4:30 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
Ruth Franklin is a senior literary editor at the politics and arts journal The New Republic. Previous to this, she reviewed books for The New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post Book World and the London Review of Books, among other publications. She received a B.A. in English from Columbia University in 1995 and an M.A. in comparative literature from Harvard University in 1998. This event is free and open to the public.
Tuesday, December 9 12:00 PM
At the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
Jed Horne is an award-winning non-fiction author, long-time newspaper and magazine editor and the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes. His latest book, Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City, was named the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Book of the Year and was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Award for best book-length work of journalism. This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Liberal Arts and Society and is free and open to the public. Read an excerpt from Jed Horne's Breach of Faith
