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Conjunctions:65, Sleights of Hand—the latest issue of the innovative literary magazine published by Bard College—gathers a wide spectrum of essays, fiction, and poetry on the subject of deception, exploring a world in which truth is a most fragile, elaborate, and mercurial thing. Edited by Conjunctions editor, novelist, and Bard literature professor Bradford Morrow, Sleights of Hand includes new work from such leading contemporary writers as James Morrow, Laura van den Berg, Porochista Khakpour, Can Xue, Joyce Carol Oates, Edie Meidav, Eleni Sikelianos, Terese Svoboda, Yannick Murphy, Peter Straub, and Paul West, among others.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2747

On Monday, November 9, Brian Evenson—the celebrated and controversial author of Altmann’s Tongue, The Wavering Knife, The Open Curtain, Last Days, Windeye, and other books—will read from his work at Bard College. “There is not a more intense, prolific, or apocalyptic writer of fiction in America than Brian Evenson,” says writer George Saunders. Evenson will be introduced by novelist and Bard literature professor Bradford Morrow. The reading, presented as part of Morrow’s Innovative Contemporary Fiction Reading Series, takes place at 2:30 p.m. in Weis Cinema at the Bertelsmann Campus Center and will be followed by a Q&A. It is free and open to the public; no reservations are required.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2746

Author Alexandra Kleeman has been selected to receive the annual Bard Fiction Prize for 2016. The prize, established in 2001 by Bard College to encourage and support promising young fiction writers, consists of a $30,000 cash award and appointment as writer in residence for one semester. Kleeman is receiving the prize for her debut novel You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine (Harper 2015).  
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2744

On November 5, celebrated poet Jennifer Moxley will read from her award-winning work at Bard College. The reading is presented by the John Ashbery Poetry Series. The Iowa Review writes that Moxley’s “poems make room for thinking, for dreams, and for silence as they manage and contextualize space both public and private ... [They seem] to ask: Can we take the detritus of living and make song of it? What would that song be like? Would it be song? How do we begin to make it? What would stand in its way?” Introduced by Ann Lauterbach, David and Ruth Schwab Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard, and followed by a Q&A, this event takes place at 6:00 p.m. in Bard Hall. It is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2743

Join a public conversation on November 7 between Neil Gaiman, Bard professor in the arts, and Armistead Maupin, the best-selling writer and activist, as they discuss their heroes Charles Dickens and Christopher Isherwood, the craft of storytelling, and many other subjects. The program takes place on Saturday, November 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater of Bard's Fisher Center. Maupin is the author of 11 novels, including the nine-volume Tales of the City series, which Salon calls “perhaps the most sublime piece of popular literature America has ever produced.”
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2740

Widely acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates, recipient of the National Humanities Medal and National Book Award, will read from "Walking Wounded," a new, unpublished story commissioned especially for its world premiere at this event on Monday, October 26. Booklist wrote, in praise of her short-story collection Lovely, Dark, Deep, "Oates, one of few writers who achieves excellence in both the novel and the short story, has more than two dozen story collections to her name and she continues to inject new, ambushing power into the form. Oates’s stories seethe and blaze." Oates will be introduced by novelist and Bard literature professor Bradford Morrow. The reading, presented as part of Morrow’s Innovative Contemporary Fiction Reading Series, takes place at 3:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. It is free and open to the public; no reservations are required.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2738

Novelist and Bard literature professor Bradford Morrow and acclaimed guitarist Alex Skolnick present A Bestiary, a live collaborative performance of Morrow’s lyrical prose pieces about animals real and imaginary—from snake to mongoose, unicorn to whale, elephant to glugfish. Set to Skolnick’s original compositions, ranging from jazz to rock to country to world music, this reading of A Bestiary unites the written word with guitar virtuosity in unexpected, magical ways.  Now comic, now tragic, A Bestiary explores the animal kingdom as well as the human condition it mirrors.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2735

On Thursday, October 8, poet Anna Moschovakis, a founding editor of Ugly Duckling Presse and winner of the Academy of American Poets’ James Laughlin Award, will give a reading at Bard College. Author of I Have Not Been Able to Get Through to Everyone, You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake, and the forthcoming They and We Will Get into Trouble for This, Moschovakis will be introduced by Ann Lauterbach, David and Ruth Schwab Professor of Languages and Literature. This event, presented by the John Ashbery Poetry Series, takes place in Bard Hall at 6:00 p.m. It is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required. Books will be available for sale and signing from Oblong Books & Music.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2734

On Monday, October 5, Bard College will present a talk by financial journalist and editor Carol Loomis to inaugurate the John J. Curran ’75 Lectures in Journalism series. Loomis is the former senior editor-at-large of Fortune magazine, and the coiner of the term “hedge fund.” The editor of Warren Buffett's annual shareholder letter, she has been recognized by the New York Times for her success in battling gender stereotypes within the financial-services industry, having started her career in the 1950s as one of only two female reporters at Fortune. The Reformed Broker calls Loomis “a lion of financial journalism,” while ValueWalk celebrates her as “without doubt, the greatest business writer of all time.”

http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2730

David Brin has been named the first annual National Endowment for the Humanities/Hannah Arendt Center Distinguished Visiting Fellow. Brin, an American scientist, award-winning author of science fiction, and leading commentator on the world’s most pressing technological trends, is in residence at the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College from Monday, October 5, to Sunday, October 25. As part of Brin’s fellowship, he will mentor selected Bard students on their fiction and nonfiction writing. Brin will also offer a number of lectures and discussions during his residency at Bard. This new annual fellowship has been made possible through an NEH Challenge Grant.

http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2729

On Thursday, September 24, at 8 p.m., the New York State Writers Institute will celebrate Bard's provocative, innovative literary journal Conjunctions with a reading by Bradford Morrow (Conjunctions editor, Bard literature professor, and Bard Center Fellow) and contributing editors Ann Lauterbach (Bard’s David and Ruth Schwab Professor of Languages and Literature) and Peter Straub. The reading will take place at the Recital Hall at the Performing Arts Center on the University at Albany’s uptown campus, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2723

On Monday, September 28, Bard alumna Allie Cashel ’13 will read from a memoir of her experience with chronic Lyme disease, Suffering the Silence: Chronic Lyme Disease in an Age of Denial. The reading is presented by the Written Arts and Biology Programs. A living portrait of chronic Lyme disease and its patients’ struggles for recognition and treatment, Suffering the Silence, originally Allie Cashel’s Senior Project, is now a full-length memoir that details Cashel’s own experience with chronic Lyme and shares the stories of a number of other patients from around the world. Introduced by Mary Caponegro ’78, Bard literature professor, and followed by a Q&A, this event takes place at 7:30 p.m. in Weis Cinema in the Bertelsmann Campus Center.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2724

On Tuesday, September 22, at 7 p.m., Norman Rush, the National Book Award winner and author of Whites, Mating, Mortals, and Subtle Bodies, will read from his work at Bard College. "Rush’s characters want to fall in love, to laugh and enjoy themselves. Their quirks, opinions, compulsions . . . keep us engrossed—along with the clarity and precision of Rush's sentences, the freshness of his observations," wrote Francine Prose in her review of Subtle Bodies in The New York Review of Books.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2720

Translating the Holocaust: H.G. Adler As Writer and Scholar,” is happening on Monday, May 4, 2015 at 4 p.m. in Bard Hall, Bard College Campus. The event offers a unique opportunity to examine the scholarly and artistic endeavors of a thinker who is just becoming known in English. Adler was among the earliest scholars to write extensively on the Shoah and was a pioneer of Holocaust Studies. Jeremy Adler, the author’s son and professor of German at Kings College London, will present the keynote address. Bill T. Jones, award winning choreographer and dancer, will give remarks. The editor and translators of some of Adler’s work will speak. Also featured is a live performance of Viktor Ullmann's song settings of Adler’s poetry. The event is sponsored by The Hannah Arendt Center, The Bard Translation Initiative, Jewish Studies, German Studies, and Human Rights Project. 
http://www.bard.edu/hannaharendtcenter/event/index.php?eid=128364&did=106928

On Saturday, April 18, at 2 p.m., the Mid-Hudson Heritage Center at 317 Main Street will celebrate Bard College’s innovative literary journal Conjunctions with a special reading. Greg Hrbek (Destroy All Monsters), Michael Ives (The External Combustion Machine), Paul La Farge (Luminous Airplanes), and Christina Mengert (As We Are Sung) will read from their work published in Conjunctions’ biannual print journal and in the weekly online magazine. Conjunctions is an internationally distributed journal of fiction, poetry, and narrative nonfiction published by Bard College and edited by Bard Center Fellow and Professor of Literature Bradford Morrow. This event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required, but seating is first come, first served. For more information, contact us at [email protected]
http://conjunctions.com/potown041815.htm

Celebrated author Rabih Alameddine will read from his work, An Unnecessary Woman, a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award. Alameddine is also the author of the story collection The Perv, and the novels Koolaids; I, the Divine; and The Hakawati. Alameddine divides his time between San Francisco and Beirut and was a 2002 Guggenheim Fellow. The reading, presented by the Written Arts and Middle Eastern Studies Programs and by the Difference and Media Project, takes place at 1 p.m. in Weis Cinema in the Bertelsmann Campus Center. The reading will be followed by a Q&A and book signing. It is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations required. 
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2678

On Monday, April 20, Jay Cantor, winner of a 1989 MacArthur Fellowship, will read from his new book, Forgiving the Angel: Four Stories for Franz Kafka, at Bard College. In its review of the book, the New York Times writes, "Forgiving the Angel links disparate time, places and characters in an ingeniously unified and admirably purposeful fiction. [In its] formal circularity, ethical ambiguity and scrupulous undecidability, Cantor’s fiction is a worthy homage to Kafka. It is also an original work that pulls our mind through the kind of biographical and historical contraption that Kafka would probably never have put together, would probably not, as a Jew in Czechoslovakia, have survived to put together."
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2677

Join author Neil Gaiman on Friday, April 3, for a dialogue with legendary musician and composer Laurie Anderson in this third edition of an ongoing series of public conversations at the Fisher Center hosted by Professor Gaiman. The discussion will center on the topics of “Story Structure” and “Fiction vs. Autobiography.” Presented by Live Arts Bard, the program takes place on April 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2666

This year, Bard College is celebrating its 25th anniversary as publisher of the renowned literary magazine Conjunctions. Edited by Bradford Morrow—novelist, Bard Center Fellow, and professor of literature—Conjunctions is widely respected as the preeminent source for the best in innovative, provocative, rigorously realized fiction, poetry, and narrative nonfiction. Events to celebrate the anniversary include a special reading on Thursday, March 26, featuring Conjunctions contributors and Bard faculty members Mary Caponegro ’78, Ann Lauterbach, Neil Gaiman, Benjamin Hale, Robert Kelly, Francine Prose, and Morrow. The anniversary will also be marked by a special exhibition at Stevenson Library, as well as a celebratory reading and fund-raiser in the Spiegeltent on July 23.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2661

Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, Mass., sponsors the annual Berkshire Festival of Women Writers, a series of events celebrating Women’s History Month in March. Held on campus and at venues throughout Berkshire County, this year's festival features more than 50 events including readings, lectures, workshops, performances, and film screenings. Read More

On Monday, March 2, Lily Tuck, the National Book Award–winning author of The News from Paraguay, Siam, I Married You for Happiness, and other books of fiction and biography, will read from her work at Bard College. “Tuck is a genius with moments … Her ability to capture beauty will remind readers of Marguerite Yourcenar and Marguerite Duras” (Los Angeles Book Review). Tuck will be introduced by novelist and Bard literature professor Bradford Morrow. The reading, presented as part of Morrow’s Innovative Contemporary Fiction Reading Series, takes place at 2:30 p.m. in Weis Cinema at the Bertelsmann Campus Center. It is free and open to the public; no reservations are required.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2659

Author Laura van den Berg, writer in residence at Bard College, reads from her recent work on Monday, February 23. The free program begins at 7 p.m. in the László Z. Bitó ’60 Auditorium in Bard’s Reem-Kayden Center. Van den Berg received the 2015 Bard Fiction Prize for her book The Isle of Youth. In this collection of stories, van den Berg explores the lives of women mired in secrecy and deception. The characters are at once vulnerable and dangerous, bighearted and ruthless—grappling with the choices they have made and searching for the clues to unlock their inner worlds.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2655

The Italian Studies Program at Bard College presents Francesco Ciabattoni to give a talk on "Dante's Musical Design in the Commedia." The lecture examines the premise that Dante's journey through the Christian netherworld is not without its own soundtrack. From the cacophonous, failed attempts at presenting sacred music in Hell, the pilgrim goes on to listen to Purgatory's expiatory performances of Gregorian chants; and from the music of pure innocence in the Garden of Eden, Dante ascends to the complex and bedazzling beauty of polyphony in Paradise. Ciabattoni will explain the musicological and theological underpinnings of Dante's chosen musical settings. The event takes place on Thursday, March 5, at 5 p.m. in Weis Cinema of the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard College.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2656

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has announced its 2014 Artists' Fellowships Awardees, and a Bard MFA alumna and faculty members are among them. Music/Sound faculty Jace Clayton, Writing alumna Charity Coleman MFA '13, and Writing faculty Matvei Yankelevich have all been named as winners. For the past 29 years, NYFA has awarded unrestricted fellowships of $7,000 to artists living and working in the state of New York. Awarded in 15 different disciplines over a three-year period, Artists' Fellowships support artists from diverse cultural backgrounds at all stages of their professional careers.

Conjunctions, the celebrated literary magazine published by Bard College, has won a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a $50,000 multiyear ($10,000/year) grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to support its print and electronic publication of award-winning fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction from many of the world’s leading contemporary writers and most innovative emerging authors.
http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2640