News from the Division of Languages and Literature

The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) of Great Britain has invited renowned Romanian émigré author and Bard College writer in residence Norman Manea to become a Fellow of RSL. The Royal Society of Literature was founded by King George IV in 1820, to “reward literary merit and excite literary talent.” Manea is the first Romanian writer to be honored by the prestigious British institution. 



This September, the Bard Free Press, Bard College’s student newspaper, and the Bard Center for Civic Engagement present the Free Press Journalism Seminar Series, featuring leading journalists, newspaper publishers, writers, and scholars discussing the state of journalism today, from the role of journalists in society to ways of becoming a journalist.

Roughly half a century after first arriving, as a budding “scientist of totality,” to teach and abide at Bard College, Robert Kelly ambled with ursine grace across the stage in Olin Auditorium and assumed the lectern. Dusk was gathering on a chilly evening, and the enthusiastic crowd—consisting of colleagues, students, administrators, and various representatives of the arts intelligentsia from surrounding communities and farther afield—was there to celebrate his eternally youthful tenure as Bard’s unofficial poet in residence.