News from the Division of Languages and Literature

On Thursday, November 14, Tavia Nyong’o—associate professor of performance studies at New York University and Errol Hill Award winner for best book in African American theatre and performance studies—will speak at Bard College. Nyong’o’s talk, “Epistemology of the Lifeboat: Life of Pi and Queer Fabulation,” is being presented by Bard’s Environmental and Urban Studies Program, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, and the Language and Literature Division, with funding from a Bard College, Mellon-supported course development award. The talk takes place at 4:30 p.m. in the Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation Room 103 and is free and open to the public.

Author Bennett Sims has been selected to receive the annual Bard Fiction Prize for 2014. 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 at the College for one semester. Sims is receiving the prize for his debut novel, A Questionable Shape. In this penetrating novel set in Baton Rouge, Sims writes about a son looking for his undead father and transcends traditional zombie narrative to deliver a wise and philosophical rumination on the nature of memory and loss.

Norway boasts 63,000 miles of fjords, bays, and islands. Professor Klinkenborg ventures into this remarkable landscape, the most complex coastline on the planet.

In the New York Review of Books 50th anniversary issue, Daniel Mendelsohn finds feminism in the cultural phenomenon that is Game of Thrones.

Composer Sung Jin Hong '03 plans to stage his new mini-opera Breaking Bad—Ozymandias next year. The piece will combine elements of the hit show with Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet "Ozymandias."

A Chelsea gallery is exhibiting a surprising collection of possessions from the Hudson, New York, home of renowned poet and Bard College professor emeritus John Ashbery.

How do you turn a graphic novel into a musical? Broadway veterans took the unconventional childhood memoir Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel A.A. '79, and adapted it for the stage.

Bard literature professor Nuruddin Farah takes a close look at Hassan Sheik Mohamud, president of Somalia, questioning his largely positive reputation in the West in light of recent violent events in and around Somalia.

The long-term survival of monarch butterflies may be in doubt, writes Verlyn Klinkenborg, due to human threats to their habitat and food supply.

Bill Emmott, former Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, will present and discuss his new documentary film Girlfriend in a Coma on Thursday, October 17, at 6 pm in the Jim Ottaway Jr. Film Theater, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Center at Bard College. Called “beautiful and cruel” by Le Monde, Girlfriend in a Coma—cowritten by Emmott with Annalisa Piras, the film’s director—deals with the current political and economic crisis in Italy.

Bard College has received a grant of $14,000 to host The Big Read in Germantown, Kingston, Red Hook, Rhinecliff, and Tivoli. The Big Read, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) managed by Arts Midwest, is designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and to encourage citizens to read for pleasure and enlightenment. The local Big Read will focus on Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, and activities will take place from March 15 to May 2, 2014.

What goes into a good translation? Professor Mendelsohn considers the fine balancing act of bring a work to life in a different language.

Francine Prose looks at how the meanings of works of art change for us as we age.

Elena Ferrante is "so gifted that by the end she has you in tears," writes Italian professor Joseph Luzzi on Ferrante's newest novel.

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.

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

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.

"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.

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.”

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.

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.

Gustave Flaubert’s collection of satirical definitions, The Dictionary of Received Ideas, was a complaint against clichés and unreflective thinking. Teju Cole recently presented a similar, updated project on Twitter.

Bard writer in residence Teju Cole's novel Open City is Book One for first-years at Simon's Rock, and it's made The Choice's list of best college orientation program books.

Daniel Mendelsohn's translation "reveals the sensual and cerebral pleasures of a 20th-century master."

Naomi LaChance '16 spoke with Hannah Arendt Center director Roger Berkowitz, previewing the new Hannah Arendt film as part of her Community Action Award internship at the Berkshire Eagle.

Francine Prose examines director Woody Allen's treatment of his heroine in Blue Jasmine, and reflects on women's roles in his earlier films.

Teju Cole looks at a power struggle in Nigeria, and author Wole Soyinka's criticism of First Lady Patience Jonathan's involvement.

Bard faculty member Daniel Mendelsohn is one of two runners-up for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. Professor Mendelsohn was recognized for his collection Waiting for the Barbarians.

"[W]hen I look up from my e-reading, I realize that the physical books are serving a new purpose—as constant reminders of what I’ve read," writes Verlyn Klinkenborg.

Bard alumnus, performer, screenwriter, and playwright Nick Jones '01 talks about how the Netflix approach of making an entire series available at once enables a different kind of viewing experience.

Bard literature professor Verlyn Klinkenborg's essays about life on his upstate farm have run in the New York Times since 1997. Many of his essays were collected this year in the book More Scenes from the Rural Life.

Bardians Liza Birnbaum '10, Molly Schaeffer '10, and Paul Cavanagh '11 started a new literary journal in Portland, Oregon, in memory of Bill Cranshaw '10, their friend who passed away after graduation.

Professor Berkowitz discusses the founding of the Hannah Arendt Center, and the new biopic about the political thinker.

President Leon Botstein sits down with the Vienna Review to talk memoirs, modernism, and the role of music in a polyglot world. (PDF)

"Master craftsman" Daniel Mendelsohn's essay collection makes NPR's list of top five nonfiction summer reads.

Professor Klinkenborg explores the "rare and precious inheritance" of a solid education in literature and writing.

Sara Wintz's first full-length collection of poetry, Walking Across A Field We Are Focused On At This Time Now, "takes the twentieth century and gives it a new haircut," writes Claire Wilcox.

Writer Sherman Yellen '53 pens "Screenplay for a 60th Wedding Anniversary" for his wife, designer Joan Yellen '55.

Professor Romm reviews Harry Eyres's new book Horace and Me.

Bard classicist, critic, and literature professor Daniel Mendelsohn talks with KUOW in Seattle about the role of professional critics in an age of customer reviews and blogs.

The Bard Fiction Prize is awarded annually to a promising, emerging writer who is an American citizen aged 39 years or younger. Winners receive a monetary award and an appointment as writer in residence at Bard for one semester. Applications for the 2014 prize are due by July 15, 2013.

Author Teju Cole has been selected as the winner of the International Literature Prize by Berlin's Haus der Kulturen der Welt for his debut novel Open City. The award recognizes both an outstanding book and its first translation into German.