Spring 2009 Events
Anyone who likes Shakespeare, who genuinely enjoys the Bard’s magnificent words, is invited to come and read aloud from the canon. We’ll simply be reading scenes and speeches from the plays, and sonnets and selections from the other poems as well. No experience or expertise of any kind required—only enthusiasm! This event is free and open to the public.
January 26: Romeo and Juliet
February 16: Venus and Adonis and the sonnets
Bonchek Lecture Hall, Barshinger Life Sciences and Philosophy Building
Bonchek Lecture: Seth Shulman
Shulman has worked for more than 25 years as a writer and editor specializing in issues in science, technology and the environment. In 2004, Shulman's work earned worldwide headlines when he served as the lead author of two investigative reports issued by the Union of Concerned Scientists that charged the George W. Bush administration with a misuse of science and lack of scientific integrity in policymaking. To date, the reports have been publicly endorsed by more than 12,000 U.S. scientists, including 48 Nobel Laureates and 62 National Medal of Science winners. His reporting on the topic was expanded in 2006 into the book: Undermining Science: Suppression and Distortion in the Bush Administration. This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Liberal Arts and Society and is free and open to the public.
Fiction Reading: Ken Kalfus and Josh Emmons
author of two novels, Prescription for a Superior Existence and The Loss of Leon Meed, he lives in Philadelphia with his wife, poet and Franklin & Marshall professor Katie Ford. This event is free and open to the public.
Wednesday, February 18 12PM
Amelia Rauser is an Associate Professor of Art History at Franklin & Marshall College. Her recent book, Caricature Unmasked: Irony, Authenticity, and Individualism in Eighteenth-Century English Prints (University of Delaware Press, 2008), examines the meaning encoded in the form of caricature, a visual art that became popular in late eighteenth-century England. Lunch will be provided. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History and is free and open to the public.
Wednesday, February 18, 4:30 PM
Writers House Community Meeting: with special guest writer Jason Stevenson
Writers House community meetings bring students, staff, and faculty together to imagine and oversee the programs of the Writers House and share writing- and reading-related resources and opportunities. This meeting will feature freelance writer and former magazine editor (Outdoor, Backpacker) Jason Stevenson. He will talk about the business of magazine writing, take questions and remain after the meeting to mingle with students one-on-one. This event is open to all members of the Franklin & Marshall Community, and first-time attendees are always welcome.
Tuesday, February 24, 7 PM
For You By You: Open Workshop with Professor Sands Hall
Fiction Reading: Amity Gaige
Amity Gaige is the author of the acclaimed novel O My Darling, chosen by the National Book Foundation for its "5 Under 35" program to recognize the achievements of five first-time fiction writers each year. Her second novel, The Folded World (2007), was named ForeWord Book of the Year, best book of fiction in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and one of the best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune. Gaige is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a McDowell Colony Fellowship, and a Baltic Writing Residency Fellowship. This event is free and open to the public.
Friday, March 6, 8 PM
Dinty W. Moore is the author of the memoir Between Panic & Desire (University of Nebraska). His other books include The Accidental Buddhist, Toothpick Men, The Emperor's Virtual Clothes, and the writing guide, The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction. He has published essays and stories in The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, Harpers, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Gettysburg Review, Utne Reader, and Crazyhorse, and teaches in the creative nonfiction PhD program at Ohio University.This event is co-sponsored by the College Dispatch and is free and open to the public.
Saturday, February 28, all day
Gettysburg Media Event
Speak Up, Write Out features eighteen faculty members from print, radio and television journalism, magazine publishing, and documentary filmmaking. It features three breakout sessions and a media "science fair," in which student from different media groups can display their work and share their innovative ideas with others. This year's keynote speaker is Kasey Pipes, a political writer with more than ten years of experience as a communications and policy advisor to such politicians as Arnold Swarzenegger and George W. Bush. This trip is open to the Franklin & Marshall community. Interested students should email whouse@fandm.edu, or call 291-4244 to sign up. Deadline to register is February 24th. Transportation vis bus will depart from Writers House. Time TBA.
Tuesday, March 3, 4-6 PM
Oxfam Social Justice Reading/Writing Workshop
Students from Oxfam, a national organization committed to ending global poverty, hunger and social injustice, will host a series of writing and reading activities, including picture- and writing-prompts, collaborative writing exercises, reading from individual work or that of an admired author, and more. This event is open to the entire Franklin & Marshall community.
Lapine Family Visiting Theatre Artist: Christopher Durang
At the Roschel Performing Arts Center
Christopher Durang is a playwright whose plays have been produced on and off- Broadway, around the country and abroad. His Obie award-winning work includes Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, and Betty's Summer Vacation. Durang has been the recipient of a Guggenheim, a Rockefeller, the CBS Playwriting Fellowship, and the Lecompte du Nouy Foundation grant, among other awards. This event is the inaugural lecture of the Lapine Family Visiting Theatre Artist Fund.
Monday, March 9, 8 PM
Jerome Irving Bank, Esq. Memorial Fund Reading and Short Story Contest:
Featuring Fiction Writer Lewis Robinson
Tuesday, March 10, 5 PM
For You By You: The Lost Generation
Great Gatsby, communers! Writers House Community members and the Student Initiatives Committee invite you to a 1920s expatriate cocktail/mocktail party. Come dressed as your favorite 1920s writer and read from his or her work. Thematic food and refreshments will be served. This event is free to all in the Franklin & Marshall Community.
Monday, March 23, 7 PM
For You By You: Play Reading
Join other Writers House Commune members and read from your play, or script in progress. Or, just come to listen, read a role in a fellow student's piece, or enjoy the good company and literary environment. Food will be provided. This event is open to all in the Franklin & Marshall Community, but please volunteer by March 13th to kerry.sherinwright@fandm.edu if you would like to read your own work.
Wednesday, March 25, 4:30 PM
Writers House Community Meeting (with special guest Mark Drew, Assitant Editor of The Gettysburg Review)
Writers House community meetings bring students, staff, and faculty together to imagine and oversee the programs of the Writers House and share writing-and reading-related resources and opportunities. This month, we are joined by Mark Drew, who has earned an AA at Elgin Community College, a BA at Knox College, and an MFA in creative writing at the University of Alabama, where he received an Academy of American Poets Prize, served first as the managing editor, then the editor of the Black Warrior Review (1993-95), and taught American literature and creative writing. He has had poems appear in The Gettysburg Review, Lament, the Mankato Poetry Review, and elsewhere. He has also published a limited-edition, letterpress chapbook titled Uncertainties.This event is open to all members of the Franklin & Marshall community, and first-time attendees are always welcome.
Wednesday, March 25, 8:00 PM
Beat Night
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 Professor Scott wright's foundation course, Self-Expression in Art and JAzz, and is free and open to the public.
Thursday, March 26, 8 PM
Poetry Reading: Adam Sol
Poet Adam Sol is the author of two collections of poetry, Jonah's Promise, which won Mid-List Press's First Series Award for Poetry, and Crowd of Sounds, which won the Trillium Award for Poetry. He is also the author of numerous essays and reviews, and teaches English at the Laurentian University at Georgian College Program. In his new novel in verse, Jeremiah, Ohio, Sol reinvents the Biblical prophet and doomsayer Jeremiah for the postmodern age, and sends him on a reeling road trip through the strip malls and back roads of the United States with an ordinary, everyman companion, Bruce. The mismatched pair are thrown together by accident, but come to value each other as they travel in early September toward the "promised city" of New York. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Scientific and Philosophical Studies of the Mind and is free and open to the public.
Tuesday, March 31, 8 PM
Poetry and Music: Steeplechase Arts
Damon Ferrante, composer of the opera "Jefferson & Poe"; Vincent Stringer, baritone and the head of the Opera Department at Morgan State University; and Nicholas Ong, virtuoso pianist. The events will coincide with the publication of Epstein's eighth volume of poetry, The Glass House, and will include readings by the poet and performances of songs written by Ferrante and Epstein; African-American Spirituals; "Snow Moon", a piano sonata by Damon Ferrante, inspired by Louis Simpson's poetry; and piano music by Chopin and Fauré. This event is free and open to the public.
Tuesday, April 2, 1:30PM - 8 PM
Publication Celebration for Intersection
Edited by the poet and Franklin & Marshall adjunct professor Marci Nelligan, Intersection is a book of essays about sidewalk life and culture. We celebrate the book's publication with a day of events, including performance art, a panel discussion with Nelligan and other experts on sidewalk culture, and a catered buffet dinner and reception.
11AM-2PM PM Performace Artist William Pope. L
Pope. L is a nationally recognized performance artist who has become known for both "The Black Factory" and his "crawls," public pieces in which he leads a group of people in a crawl down a populated city street. Through ingenious and unorthodox methods, he challenges assumptions about race, class, art, culture, and a host of other notions. In the Black Factory: The Storage Room, "visitors" will clean out their mental storage rooms, with Pope. L as their reflector.
4:30 PM Panel Discussion
Join us for a discussion on Intersection with Marci Nelligan, editor; Nicole Mauro, co-editor; Claire Potter, sociologist and professor of history at Wesleyan University; and performace artist William Pope. L.
6:00 PM Buffet and reception
This event is free and open to the public.
Tuesday, April 7, 8 PM
Faculty Reading: Sands Hall, Nadine Meyer and Steve Gehrke
SANDS HALL is the author of the novel Catching Heaven, published by Ballantine Books and a Willa Award
STEVE GEHRKE has published three books of poetry, most recently Michelangelo's Seizure, which was selected for the National Poetry Series and published by University of Illinois Press in 2007. His other awards include a Puchcart Prize and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. His new work can be found at Literary Imagination, Agni, Ontario Review, and others.
A Play of One's Own: Laura Korach Howell
Laura Howell is an Equity actor, director, and playwright, as well as a faculty member at The Fulton Academy. Her one-woman show, Shakespeare's World, Women & Significant Others, was accepted to be part of the Pennsylvania Humanities Council's Commonwealth Speaker program. Howell is the executive director of The People's Shakespeare Project, an organization dedicated to furthering an appreciation and understanding of William Shakespeare's texts through performances and performance-based instruction. Howell will be performing the one-woman play A Play of One's Own, written by Barbara Bejoian, which delves deeply into the life of Virginia Woolf her writing, her family and friends, the Bloomsbury years, her lovers, and her struggles with mental illness.
The 2009 Emerging Writers Festival
The Emerging Writers Festival is a three-day celebration of the work of talented and promising younger American writers. Each year, the Festival brings five fine younger writers to campus all at once for three days, giving them opportunities to mix often and informally with students and with one another. 2009 marks the eighth year of the Festival, which has grown into a treasured tradition at the College and a nationally recognized honor for the writers who are invited to participate. This year's festival features Katie Hays, Shane McCrae, Laura van den Berg, Jaed Coffin and Dash Shaw. The Emerging Writers Festival is co-sponsored by the Department of English and is generously supported by Richard and Edna Hausman.
