News and Notes by Date
April 2015
04-24-2015
The Jewish Museum will present "H.G. Adler: A Survivor's Dual Reverie," an author talk featuring Daniel Mendelsohn, Peter Filkins, Ruth Franklin, and H.G. Adler's son Jeremy Adler, on Thursday, May 7 at 7pm, as part of the PEN World Voices Festival.
04-15-2015
Celia Bland who is the international coordinator for the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College has won the first prize at the Raynes Poetry Competition
04-15-2015
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].
04-09-2015
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.
04-02-2015
Cole considers approaches to conflict photography and asks, "What, then, are we to do with a thrilling photograph that is at the same time an image of pain?"
04-02-2015
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."
March 2015
03-26-2015
Hannah Arendt Center senior fellow Wyatt Mason examines Rush’s National Book Award–winning novel in the third installment of this online book club.
03-25-2015
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.
03-23-2015
Bard College and Simon's Rock faculty member Peter Filkins has received a 2015–2016 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of his research and writing of The Life and Times of H.G. Adler (1910 -1988): Poet, Novelist, and Holocaust Survivor.
03-18-2015
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.
03-09-2015
"Gaiman’s attention to craft, passion for language and profound respect for the mythological roots of what is now called 'speculative fiction' come through" in this new collection.
03-08-2015
Critic, classicist, and Bard professor Daniel Mendelsohn considers the strange cultural history of Sappho and the enduring allure of her poetry.
03-07-2015
Laura van den Berg's "pleasingly strange" novel, Find Me, follows an immune young woman during a lethal epidemic who embarks on a quest to find her long-lost mother.
03-05-2015
"It's a gathering place, a conjoining of voices," says Bradford Morrow, defining "conjunctions"—the name of the literary journal he founded with Kenneth Rexroth.
February 2015
02-28-2015
Professor Manea talks about his newly translated first novel, Captives, his complicated relationship with Romania, and why America is "the world’s best hotel."
02-27-2015
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
02-27-2015
World Literature Today has named Professor Joseph Luzzi's My Two Italies in its Nota Bene section—books to "note well."
02-23-2015
"Teju Cole is the author of two works of fiction that radically expand our understanding of diaspora and dislocation in the twenty-first century," writes Jonathon Sturgeon.
02-20-2015
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.
02-20-2015
Laura van den Berg's debut novel Find Me is earning deserved comparisons to acclaimed writers Margaret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro.
02-18-2015
A retired cop, a most-wanted list, and a young Andy Warhol all have roles to play in this short story by Luc Sante.
02-11-2015
"At what point," wonders Prose, "did we start expecting films to tell the truth about the past? And won’t we be in trouble if we do?"
02-11-2015
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.
02-09-2015
Professor Maria Sachiko Cecire directs Performing Dido, a short film about two gender-bending productions of the classic story staged in the hall of Christ Church, Oxford in 2013.
02-05-2015
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.
02-02-2015
Joseph O'Neill and Mona Simpson are among 19 nominees for the world's richest short story prize, the £30,000 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award.
January 2015
01-30-2015
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film about a cinema superhero struggling for a comeback on Broadway boasts "extraordinary originality."
01-26-2015
Bard Fiction Prize winner Laura van den Berg on teaching, the benefits of a quiet space, and how working on a short story is different from a novel.
01-25-2015
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.
01-16-2015
Derek Furr, English faculty member and MAT Program director, considers how readers identify with the works of poets Derek Walcott and Elizabeth Bishop.
01-15-2015
Distinguished Writer in Residence Francine Prose discusses the recent revelation that e-book retailers are able to track people's reading habits.
01-14-2015
In Norman Manea's novel Captives, originally written in Romanian in 1970, characters are haunted by the past.
01-13-2015
Last year Bard professor and acclaimed author Neil Gaiman did an experiment: take a hiatus from his immensely popular Twitter account and allow himself to get bored.
01-08-2015
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.
01-07-2015
Bard alumnus Ian Dreiblatt visits temple cults, urban landscapes, and cultures both modern and ancient through Robert Kelly's A Voice Full of Cities.
01-07-2015
Rikki Ducornet's The Deep Zoo is a collection of 15 short essays whose "capacity for insights and range of thought ... is sprawling."
December 2014
12-24-2014
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College presents a full spring season of performing arts events, including jazz and orchestral concerts, and innovative dance and theater productions, from January 31 through May 16. Highlights include the Billie Holiday Centenary Tribute, Joseph Haydn’s The Creation, American Symphony Orchestra concerts, Cynthia Hopkins’ A Living Documentary, Neil Gaiman in Conversation with Laurie Anderson, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance.
12-23-2014
Meet John Ashbery, award-winning author of more than 30 books and Charles P. Stevenson, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Languages and Literature at Bard.
12-21-2014
"Bradford Morrow is, quite skillfully, paying homage to one of Agatha Christie’s most famous whodunits. Yet even then, he offers a few twists of his own ...."
12-20-2014
Writer in Residence Teju Cole and Bard Fiction Prize winner Laura van den Berg discuss reading for diversity, popular books, and what they're reading right now.
12-18-2014
Daniel Mendelsohn on "plot versus plottiness"—by way of Aristotle, Jerry Seinfeld, Downton Abbey, and Scandal—in his inaugural Harper's column.
12-14-2014
Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal both praised Norman Manea's Captives, his 1970 debut novel, now translated from Romanian to English for the first time.
12-14-2014
Professor Farah plays matchmaker with his unfulfilled characters in his short story "The Start of the Affair."
12-12-2014
Languages and Literature professor Ann Lauterbach and professor emeritus John Ashbery describe the pull of their favorite historical photographs.
12-11-2014
Author Teju Cole discusses the CIA torture report, his affection for the Times arts section, and why he wants to write for the Onion.
12-11-2014
"I am a bit shocked to realize 2014 was the year I loved everything I read," begins Porochista Khakpour as she names the best books she read this year.
12-09-2014
How are Bard students and faculty talking about the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases? Bard writer in residence Francine Prose offers a glimpse into her classroom discussion.
12-08-2014
Bard College presents a special exhibition of photographs and poetry on display from December 8
through January 9, on view in the Charles P. Stevenson, Jr. Library in the atrium and the Sussman Room, 2nd floor. The exhibition features two works, “Winter Music,” a collaboration between artist/photographer Susan Quasha and renowned poet Robert Kelly, and “Madonna Comix,” a series of 26 prints by Dianne Kornberg based on 11 poems by Celia Bland. There will be an opening reception and poetry reading on Tuesday, December 9, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Library atrium.
12-04-2014
Guilty pleasures, long books, and genre fiction ... Writer in Residence Teju Cole and Bard Fiction Prize winner Laura van den Berg comment on this second installment of "How Writers Read."
12-03-2014
Mariel Fiori talks about the character of the Hudson Valley's Hispanic population, and why she founded Bard's La Voz magazine to help serve its needs.