Contemporary Writers Series 2011-2012
Founded with a grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation and continued through the Peter Canisius Distinguished Teaching Professorship Program, the writer series is generously supported today by the Office of Academic Affairs and the Quasi Endowment, the Fitzpatrick Chair, and the Hassett and Scoma Endowments, and with the cooperation of The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Just Buffalo Literary Center, Western New York Writing Project, and Talking Leaves Books.
FALL 2011
Stewart O’NanThursday, October 6, 2011; 7:30 p.m.
Grupp Fireside Lounge
Stewart O’Nan was born and raised in Pittsburgh. He earned his B.S. from Boston University and worked for several years as an engineer before returning to school and earning an MFA in fiction from Cornell. He is the author of twelve novels, including Snow Angels, A Prayer for the Dying, Songs for the Missing, Last Night at the Lobster, and, most recently, Emily, Alone. He’s also written two works of nonfiction, The Circus Fire and Faithful (with Stephen King). Granta named him one of the twenty Best Young American Novelists. He lives with his family in Pittsburgh.
Web Resources
Home Page -- http://stewart-onan.com/
NPR Interview
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/05/135514997/
what-its-like-to-be-an-elderly-widow-all-alone
New York Times on O’Nan and Last Night at the Lobster
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/books/03stewart.html
Random House Interview with O’Nan
http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0800/onan/interview.html
O’Nan reading, Last Night at the Lobster, video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2KMWgTiFAQ
O’Nan reading, Last Night at the Lobster, video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTDuRCUB3D8
New York Times Review Last Night at the Lobster
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/arts/04iht-lobsterreview.8584427.html
B&N Review Last Night at the Lobster
http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5
/Last-Night-at-the-Lobster/The-B-amp-N-Review
-of-Last-Night-at-the-Lobster/td-p/157319
Review of Faithful
http://www.bostonspastime.com/stories/faithful.html
Joyce Carol OatesNEW DATE -- Monday, November 28, 2011; 8 p.m.
Montante Cultural Center
Joyce Carol Oates is a native of Lockport, New York, and one of our country’s most prolific and versatile contemporary writers. She is the author of more than 70 books including novels, short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, literary criticism, and essays. Last March, President Obama presented her a National Humanities Medal in honor of her lifetime of literary achievement. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University.
Web Resources
Home Page -- http://www.usfca.edu/jco/
Video on Writing Characters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgJ809QKmasReview and excerpt from “A Widow’s Story.”
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/14/133693784/
joyce-carol-oates-brave-intimate-story-of-a-widowVideo of Oates on “A Widow’s Story” and being a widow, PBS.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/
jan-june11/joycecarol_02-03.htmlArticle by Oates on writing.
http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/
071999oates-writing.htmlVideo Interview of Oates on writing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaxFbNgskOwVideo reading of “A Widow’s Story”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DjU39eSfik&playnext=1&list=PLD32038AF57773EF5
SPRING 2012
Aryn Kyle
Grupp Fireside Lounge
Aryn Kyle was born in Peoria, Illinois and grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado. She is a graduate of the University of Montana Writing Program. She is the author of the bestselling novel The God of Animals and Boys and Girls Like You and Me, a collection of stories. Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Award and a National Magazine Award in fiction, and her work has been translated in 17 languages. She lives in New York City.Web Resources
Home Page -- http://www.arynkyle.com/Home_.html
Aryn Kyle Blog
http://arynkyle.tumblr.com/Aryn Kyle Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aryn-Kyle/20471394278Aryn Kyle Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/arynkyleNPR audio interview, short article and “The Gods of Animals” excerpt
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/
story.php?storyId=9218232Bio and interview, Barnes and Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/
writerdetails.asp?cid=1708887Video, Aryn Kyle on “The Gods of Animals”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUpYwWYvl3IAryn Kyle Reading
http://www.brooklyntheborough.com/2010/08/
author-aryn-kyle-on-dating-another-writer/
Bernard O’Donoghue
Thursday, April 19, 2012; 7 p.m.
Montante Cultural Center
Ninth Annual Hassett Reading
Bernard O’Donoghue was born in Cullen, Co. Cork. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Lincoln College, Oxford, and is currently a Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, where he teaches Medieval literature. He has published Seamus Heaney and the Language of Poetry, a verse translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and five collections of poetry, including Gunpowder, winner of the Whitbread Award for Poetry. His Selected Poems were published in 2008. His most recent collection of poems is Farmers Cross.
Web Resources
General Info
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth5689E3E00a47a23746LmH1964D92
Review of Selected Poems
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/apr/19/
featuresreviews.guardianreview23
Video Reading
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWlACEhclJ0
Review of “Gunpowder”
http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/
record.asp?id=12613
Interview
http://lidiavianu.mttlc.ro/bernard_o'donoghue.htm
Wadham College Page on O’Donoghue
http://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/fellows-staff/
staff/bernard-odonoghue.html