News from the Division of Languages and Literature

Bard professor, writer Verlyn Klinkenborg offers a meditation on the arrival of autumn.

Tim Davis is traveling the United States with journalist Joe Hagan, profiling Americans from all walks of life using old-fashioned tools: pen and paper, and a large format view camera.

Bard writer in residence Teju Cole was in Nairobi last week during the terrorist attack at the Westgate mall, and met Kofi Awoonor at the Storymoja Hay Festival shortly before his death.

Francine Prose considers the flawed yet heroic characters of Nicole Holofcener’s new film, Enough Said.

Bard history professor Richard Aldous's new biography Tony Ryan: Ireland's Aviator chronicles the life of the billionaire philanthropist. This article offers a taste of the new book.

Francine Prose ventures into the secret corners of the city with three museums off the beaten path.

"One observation I try to impart to my undergraduate writing students is this: you have never read a first draft," writes Brendan Mathews.

"Humans have always had trouble understanding instinct," writes Verlyn Klinkenborg. "If we experience it, we do not recognize it as such."

As the tennis season comes to a close, Professor Joseph Luzzi performs an annual ritual of rereading John McPhee’s Levels
 of the Game, about the historic 1968 U.S. Open semifinal between Arthur Ashe and Clark
 Graebner.

Bard alumnus, writer, and director David Cote '92 will direct two plays in New York City this month: Otherland, which he wrote, and Something Something Über Alles, written by late Bard faculty member Assurbanipal Babilla.

Last week the New York Times announced a new back page for its Book Review, called Bookends, in which two writers tackle a provocative question. Daniel Mendelsohn and Francine Prose are among the columnists.

Teju Cole parodies a recent Washington Post piece titled “9 questions about Syria you were too embarrassed to ask.”

Norman Rush promised his wife, Elsa, that his new novel would be short and he would finish it quickly. It was a promise he couldn't keep. Wyatt Mason tells the story of marriage and collaboration.