News from the Division of Languages and Literature

"He was a titan of African literature," says alumna Priya George '97 of the late Professor Emeritus Chinua Achebe. "He was a titan, but you never really felt that. He had zero ego. He was the friendliest man, he just had a gentle way about him."

President Botstein reflects on Professor Achebe's life, work, and legacy on CNN. "Achebe's contribution was not merely literary . . . He was committed to his people and his community. He did not shy away from political controversy, and he did so in a manner that was unforgettable."

The Bard community was deeply saddened to learn of the death of groundbreaking Nigerian writer and Bard professor emeritus Chinua Achebe. The author and educator was best known for his first and most influential novel, Things Fall Apart. He wrote numerous books, including novels, collections of short fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and children's books. Professor Achebe received more than 30 honorary degrees, as well as many awards for his work. He was the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard from 1990 to 2009. (Photo by Don Hammerman)

Bard College writer in residence Edie Meidav, author of Lola, California, will host the panel "The Female Rebel: Women Writers on the Antiheroine in Fiction." The event will take place on March 27 at Bard College at Simon's Rock as part of the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers.

On Monday, April 1, Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize–winning fiction writer and recipient of a 2012 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, will read from his work at Bard College. The New York Times called Díaz “one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive and irresistible new voices.”

Conjunctions held a launch event in January for its newest volume, featuring Bard professor and journal editor Bradford Morrow, alumnus Jedediah Berry '99, Charles Bernstein, and Valerie Martin.

Acclaimed Israeli author and filmmaker Etgar Keret will give a reading at Bard College on Monday, April 15. Keret will read selections from his recent work Suddenly, a Knock on the Door, as well as from The Girl on the Fridge, which contains his earliest stories.

Vassar College professor Amitava Kumar interviews Bard College distinguished writer in residence, historian, and photographer Teju Cole. This issue also contains a series of Cole's paired photographs from different global locations, with Kumar's exploration of their relationships to each other and other great works of art.

Hesitating Beauty, a new book of photography by Joshua Lutz '97, MFA '05 (ICP), is a meditation on his mother's mental illness. His work will be on display at New York’s ClampArt Gallery from April 11th to May 18th.

Julia Bloch has been selected as a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards, which recognize LGBT writing. Bloch, a poet and faculty member in the Bard Master of Arts in Teaching program, was nominated for her book Letters to Kelly Clarkson.

This new series, curated by Bard faculty members Roger Berkowitz and Walter Russell Mead, will engage an ongoing discussion with the nation’s leading bloggers in politics, history, art, and culture. Bard professor Francine Prose, who blogs for the New York Review of Books, will speak on March 5. All events take place at the Bard Graduate Center in Manhattan.