All upcoming Authors, Books, & Writing programs

Discover how visual art can inspire creative writing and how writing can offer a powerful way to experience art. Join Mary Hall Surface, the founding instructor of the National Gallery of Art’s popular Writing Salon, for three online workshops that spotlight a diverse range of visual art chosen to inspire writers of all experience levels to deepen their process and practice. This writing session is inspired by 20th-century American artist Georgia O’Keeffe’s shell paintings.

Historian Clay Jenkinson is a John Steinbeck scholar who is retracing the author’s 1960 Travels with Charley tour of America to explore the mood and face of the country on the eve of its 250th birthday. Jenkinson examines Steinbeck's extraordinary account of his road trip ­and his own attempt to make sense of what the author called "this monster country" by viewing it with fresh eyes during a spring-though-fall driving odyssey.

Discover how visual art can inspire creative writing and how writing can offer a powerful way to experience art. Join Mary Hall Surface, the founding instructor of the National Gallery of Art’s popular Writing Salon, for three online workshops that spotlight a diverse range of visual art chosen to inspire writers of all experience levels to deepen their process and practice. This writing session is inspired by 20th-century photographer Berenice Abbott’s Pennsylvania Station.

Forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs is known for her crime novels chronicling the adventures of Temperance “Bones” Brennan, a forensic anthropologist at the fictional Jeffersonian Institute. Her latest thriller, Fire and Bones, finds Brennan at the center of a Washington, D.C., arson investigation that produces deepening levels of mystery and, ultimately, violence—and a surprising link to the notorious Depression-era Foggy Bottom Gang. Join Reichs as she discusses the inspiration behind the novel and how she staged the thriller in the Smithsonian’s­—or the Jeffersonian’s­­­­—backyard.

Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Demon Copperhead is an adaptation of the beloved 19th-century novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Joseph Luzzi, professor of literature at Bard College, shows how Kingsolver updated the concerns of David Copperfield to deal with issues of contemporary American life such as the opioid crisis, rural poverty, and the schisms in an increasingly divided country. He also compares style, character creation, and plot development in the two books.

Folklorists Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman discuss the versatile figure of the witch in the folkloric medium of the fairy tale. Focusing on the collection of the Brothers Grimm, Cleto and Warman explore the many distinctive witches they gave us and their relationships to self-determination, community, and nature.

Virginia Woolf famously said that George Eliot’s monumental Middlemarch from 1872 was “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people.” Joseph Luzzi, professor of literature at Bard College, examines how Eliot used innovative literary techniques and delves into her treatment of political issues, key transitions in English social and cultural life, and the characters’ emotional lives.

Over the past half century, dwarves, hobbits, magic, dragons, runes, and other staples of fantastic realms have become entrenched in popular culture, from The Lord of the Rings to the Harry Potter series. There are substantive historical inspirations behind these phenomena. Historian Justin M. Jacobs discusses the evolving conceptions of fantastic elements in Eurasian history and lays bare the truth behind what he sees as four distorted myths of fantasy in our culture in this fall series. This session focuses on the history of magic.

Over the past half century, dwarves, hobbits, magic, dragons, runes, and other staples of fantastic realms have become entrenched in popular culture, from The Lord of the Rings to the Harry Potter series. There are substantive historical inspirations behind these phenomena. Historian Justin M. Jacobs discusses the evolving conceptions of fantastic elements in Eurasian history and lays bare the truth behind what he sees as four distorted myths of fantasy in our culture in this fall series. This session focuses on elves, dwarves, and hobbits.

The autobiographical Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a combination of memoir and treatise on abolition, charts Douglass’ escape from the horrors of slavery to his life as a key member of the anti-slavery movement. Joseph Luzzi, professor of literature at Bard College, explores the book’s literary elements and themes, including Douglass’ brilliant ideas on religion, morality, education, and freedom.