March 2014

Saturday, 3/1

Sunday, 3/2

Monday, 3/3

A poetry Reading by Bruce Andrews

7:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

hosted by: Charles Bernstein

listen: to an audio recording of this event

Bruce Andrews is a multimedia writer, sound designer, art and literary theorist, and political scientist, based in New York City since the 1970s. He has maintained a consistent position and prolific record of activism at the radical edge of the literary avant-garde — as The Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century Literature in English puts it, as "a performance artist and poet whose texts are some of the most radical of the Language school; his poetry tries to cast doubt on each and every 'natural' construction of language." He is the author of more than thirty collections of poetry and performance scores, with many books, shorter texts, interviews, essays, recordings & commentary online at the Electronic Poetry Center, UbuWeb, PennSound, Eclipse, Jacket, and Wikipedia. Andrews was coeditor, with Charles Bernstein, of the influential L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E journal of poetics theorizing and discussion (1978–1982) and The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book (Southern Illinois University Press, 1984). His (stylistically distinctive) essays and interviews on poetics are collected in the Northwestern University Press collection Paradise and Method: Poetics and Praxis (1996). Andrews has taught political science at Fordham University since 1975 with a focus on global capitalism, US imperialism, the politics of communication, conspiracy theory, and covert politics. In New York City, he has been involved in a long series of collaborative multimedia theatrical projects and performances — with selected performance texts published in Ex Why Zee (Roof Books, 1995) and Sugar Raised (forthcoming). He has received grants and fellowship opportunities from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Harvestworks and Engine 27 (the last two involving innovative electronic treatments of his texts and vocals).

Tuesday, 3/4

A conversation with film producer Robert Greenhut

hosted by Kathy DeMarco

12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

In the Arts Café, Penn cinema professor Emory Van Cleve hosted an intimate conversation with producer Robert Greenhut on the ins and outs of the film industry. After lunch provided by the Creative Ventures Project and an introduction by KWH Director Jessica Lowenthal, Greenhut discussed the evolution of the film industry throughout his career, the business model behind making a film, and what it's like to work with long time colleague Woody Allen, including his edits on the original Annie Hall script! The discussion was followed by a heated Q&A with the audience in which Greenhut shared his disappointment with the overwhelming amount of media that's available today, as well as an audience wide discussion about whether or not watching movies and television on mobile phones is degrading the film industry or becoming a necessary part of its' future.

Film producer Robert Greenhut has worked on upwards of eighty feature films, collaborating with such directors as Woody Allen, Mike Nichols, Sidney Lumet, Marty Ritt, Penny Marshall, Milos Forman, Bob Fosse, Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola, Elaine May, Herb Ross, Billy Friedkin, Arthur Penn, and John Cassavetes. Five of his films -- Lenny, Dog Day Afternoon, Hannah and Her Sisters, Working Girl and Annie Hall -- have been nominated for Best Picture of the year Academy Awards.

Greenhut began his film career as a production assistant on Arthur Hiller's 1967 comedy The Tiger Makes Out. During the next seven years, he worked in various production capacities, rising through the ranks to become a production manager, assistant director, and associate producer. In 1976, Greenhut served as associate producer on The Front, a Hollywood blacklist drama starring Woody Allen. It was the first of many collaborations with the writer/director. After that, Greenhut served as the executive producer and production manager of Annie Hall and went on to produce or executive produce every Allen-directed film through the period musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You in 1996.

Some of Greenhut's other notable producing credits include: Milos Forman's Hair, Steve Gordon's Arthur, and Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy, Mike Nichols' Heartburn, Working Girl, Postcards from the Edge, Regarding Henry and Wolf, as well as Penny Marshall's Big, A League of Their Own, Renaissance Man, and The Preacher's Wife.

Whenever We Feel Like It: Travis Macdonald and David Goldstein

A Poetry Reading

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

hosted by: Michelle Taransky

listen: to an audio recording of this event

Travis Macdonald is the author of two full-length collections of poetry (The O Mission Repo and N7ostradamus) as well as several chapbooks. He currently lives in Philadelphia, PA where he works as a copywriter and co-edits Fact-Simile Editions, a micropress dedicated to publishing works of contemporary poetry using mostly reclaimed or recycled materials.

David B. Goldstein's new book is Laws of Rest (BookThug). His first chapbook, Been Raw Diction, was published by Dusie Press in 2006. As a literary critic, food writer, and translator, he has published on a wide range of subjects, including Shakespeare, contemporary poetry, translation, cannibalism, philosophies of food, and the politics of Martha Stewart. His first book of criticism, Eating and Ethics in Shakespeare's England, is due out this fall. His translations from Italian poetry appear in The FSG Book of 20th-Century Italian Poetry, among other publications. Goldstein lives with his family in Toronto, where he is Associate Professor of English at York University.

Wednesday, 3/5

7up on Pound

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

Every year for our annual Seven Up program, we invite seven people to speak for seven minutes each about a shared topic. This year, for Seven Up on Pound, we'll feature talks on pound cake and Twitter, Shakespeare and bodybuilding:

Kenna O'Rourke : the British pound

: the British pound Bob Perelman : Ezra Pound

: Ezra Pound Janelle McDermoth : weights and measures (weightlifting, bodybuilding)

: weights and measures (weightlifting, bodybuilding) Waleed Yousef : the dog pound (or the anti-dog pound: Leash for Life)

: the dog pound (or the anti-dog pound: Leash for Life) John Michael Conway : pound of flesh

: pound of flesh Kristen Martin : pound cake

: pound cake Madeleine Wattenbarger : twitter hashtag

Thursday, 3/6

Iranian-American Novelists

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

listen: to an audio recording of this event

co-sponsored by: Writers Without Borders ; Middle East Center , the Free Library of Philadelphia ; Departments of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, History, and English at the University of Pennsylvania ; the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program ; and the Penn Women's Center

Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet's novel, Martyrdom Street, is set during the revolutionary year of 1979. It details the lives of three women and their intertwining stories of love, loss, betrayal and hope.

Parochista Khakpour is the author of Sons and Other Flammable Objects. Her novel reveals a tale of immigrant identity, assimilation, and the universal struggle of sons to define themselves in the shadow of their fathers.

Marjan Kamali recently released her debut novel, Together Tea. The work follows an Iranian-American mother, Darya, and her daughter, Mina. Their story is one of family, love and finding the place you truly belong.

Persis Karim is the editor, along with Anita Amirrezvani, of Tremors: New Fiction by Iranian American Writers. The collection combines a multitude of works ranging from poetry to non-fiction and represents a diverse group of voices.

Anita Amirrezvani's work, The Blood of Flowers, is the mesmerizing historical novel of an ill-fated young woman whose gift as a rug designer transforms her life.

Friday, 3/7

Saturday, 3/8

Sunday, 3/9

Monday, 3/10

Tuesday, 3/11

Wednesday, 3/12

Thursday, 3/13

Friday, 3/14

Saturday, 3/15

Sunday, 3/16

Monday, 3/17

LUNCH WITH LISA DEPAULO

12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

Hosted by: Dick Polman

RSVP: wh@writing.upenn.edu or call 215-746-POEM

listen: to an audio recording of this event

As a magazine writer for GQ, New York, and Vanity Fair, Lisa DePaulo has profiled everyone from Ed Rendell and Jamie Foxx to Liz Smith and Donald Rumsfeld. Before going national, she spent nearly a decade at Philadelphia Magazine, and returned to its pages last September with an epic story about Julia Law, the young paralegal who was found dead in the home of her boss and lover, Philadelphia defense attorney Chuck Peruto. The piece was turned into an e-book, titled The Dead Girl in the Bathtub. DePaulo has taught profile writing at NYU, and she's a University of Pennsylvania graduate, Class of '82.

A meeting of the Hub

The Writers House Planning Committee

5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

From the time of its founding in 1995-1996, the Kelly Writers House has been run more or less collectively by members of its community. Our original team of intrepid founders—the group of students, faculty, alumni, and staff who wanted to create an independent haven for writers and supporters of contemporary writing in any genre—took for themselves the name "the hub." "Hub" was the generic term given by Penn's Provost, President, and other planners who hoped that something very innovative would be done at 3805 Locust Walk to prove the viability of the idea that students, working with others, could create an extracurricular learning community around common intellectual and creative passions. To this day, the Writers House Planning Committee refers to itself as "the hub"—the core of engaged faculty, student, staff, and alumni volunteers from whom the House's creative energy and vitality radiates.

Monday, 3/17 - evening

THE BEAT POETS

A conversation and live webcast with Philadelphia writers

7:30 PM in the Arts Cafe

Hosted by: Julia Bloch

listen: to an audio recording of this event

THE BEAT POETS: A CONVERSATION WITH PHILADELPHIA WRITERS brings together five Philadelphia-based writers — Frank Sherlock, Michelle Taransky, Maria Raha, Chris McCreary, and Thomas Devaney — to talk about the Beat legacy. We'll consider the significance of the Beats to poets today, from classic figures like Kerouac and Ginsberg to alt-Beats (Baraka, Waldman) to the legacy of Beat poetic elements (babbleflow, the road trip, bohemianism) and beyond.

Frank Sherlock is the author of the soon-to-be-released Space Between These Lines Not Dedicated, Over Here, The City Real & Imagined (w/ CAConrad), and a collaboration with Brett Evans entitled Ready-to-Eat Individual. Por Aquí, a Spanish-language collection of works translated by Carlos Soto-Román, will be published in Chile in fall 2014. Poems beyond the page have found their forms in installations/performances/exhibitions, including Refuse/Reuse: Language for the Common Landfill, Kensington Riots Project, Neighbor Ballads, and B.Franklin Basement Tapes. Sherlock is a recipient of the 2013 Pew Fellowship in the Arts for literature. He is currently Poet Laureate of Philadelphia.

Maria Raha is the author of Cinderella's Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie Underground and Hellions: Pop Culture's Rebel Women, both published by Seal Press. She has contributed to numerous nonfiction anthologies, including The W Effect: Bush's War on Women, Madonna and Me: Women Writers on the Queen of Pop, and Punk Rock Warlord: The Life and Work of Joe Strummer. In 2008, Hellions received the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Emily Toth Award for the "best single work in women's studies." Raha is also an editor at Temple University.

Chris McCreary's latest book, [ neüro / måntic ], is forthcoming from Furniture Press later this year. Along with Jenn McCreary, he co-edits ixnay press.

Michelle Taransky, the author of Sorry Was in the Woods (Omnidawn 2013) and Barn Burned, Then (Omnidawn 2009), was selected by Marjorie Welish for the 2008 Omnidawn Poetry Prize. Taransky teaches courses in critical and creative writing at Penn, and is the Reviews Editor for the online poetry and poetics magazine Jacket2. She is currently teaching "The Poem That Changed America," a course based on Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl."

Thomas Devaney is the author of The Picture that Remains (The Print Center, 2014). He studied with Allen Ginsberg at Brooklyn College, where he earned an MFA in poetry. He is the editor of ONandOnScreen and he teaches at Haverford College.

This event is free and open to the public, and will also be offered as an INTERACTIVE WEBCAST: audiences watching from outside the Arts Café will be invited to join us with their questions and comments!

You can join the interactive webcast one of two ways: by phone, or by Twitter:

WATCH the event live here

JOIN by phone or by Twitter:

Call 215-573-9752

Tweet using #phillybeats

Tuesday, 3/18

A reading by Adam Wilson

12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

hosted by: Sam Apple

listen: to an audio recording of this event

Adam Wilson is the author of What's Important is Feeling: Stories (Harper Perennial, 2014),and Flatscreen: A novel (Harper Perennial, 2012), which was a National Jewish Book Award Finalist, an Indie Next Pick, and an Amazon Book of the Month. In 2012, Adam received the Paris Review's Terry Southern Prize which awards, "wit, panache, and sprezzatura in work published by The Paris Review." Brooklyn Magazine recently named him to its list of 50 Funniest People in Brooklyn.

His short stories have appeared in many publications including The Paris Review, Tin House, The Literary Review, Washington Square Review, The New York Tyrant, The Coffin Factory, Word Riot, elimae, Cousin Corinne's Reminder, Meridian, and Gigantic, as well as the anthologies Promised Lands: New Jewish American Fiction on Longing and Belonging, Forty Stories: New Writing From Harper Perennial, and the forthcoming Gigantic Worlds: An Anthology of Science Flash Fiction. In 2012, Tom Perrotta selected his story "What's Important Is Feeling" for inclusion in that year's edition of The Best American Short Stories.

He is a Contributing Editor at The American Reader, and his essays, journalism, and criticism,have appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Bookforum, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New York Observer, Time Out New York, The Forward, Salon, Paste, The Rumpus, and the anthologies Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex, and A Friday Night Lights Companion: Love, Loss, and Football in Dillon, Texas.

Adam was born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts, where he attended Newton South High School. He holds a BA from Tufts University, and an MFA from Columbia University. A former employee of Brooklyn's famous Bookcourt bookstore, he now teaches creative writing at New York University, Columbia University, and The Sackett Street Writer's Workshop. He lives in Brooklyn.

A reading by Ben Lerner

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

listen: to an audio recording of this event

Ben Lerner, Associate Professor, is the author of three books of poetry: The Lichtenberg Figures (2004), Angle of Yaw (2006), and Mean Free Path (2010), all published by Copper Canyon Press. He has been a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry and the Northern California Book Award, a Fulbright Scholar in Spain, and a Howard Foundation Fellow. In 2011 he became the first American to win the Preis der Stadt Münster für Internationale Poesie for the German translation of The Lichtenberg Figures. His first novel, Leaving the Atocha Station (Coffee House, 2011) won The Believer Book Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for First Fiction and the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award. It was named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker, The Guardian, The New Statesman, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and New York Magazine, among many others. His recent criticism can be found in Art in America, boundary 2, and Critical Quarterly, where he also serves as poetry editor.

Wednesday, 3/19

A CONVERSATION WITH TOM JUNOD

12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

Hosted by: Paul Hendrickson

RSVP: wh@writing.upenn.edu or call 215-746-POEM

listen: to an audio recording of this event

Journalist Tom Junod has published some of the most celebrated pieces in American magazine writing, including, "The Abortionist," "The Rapist Says He's Sorry," "The Falling Man," and a 2001 piece on R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe, in which he satirically fabricated information. Junod has worked as a writer for Esquire magazine since 1997, after following editor David Granger to the magazine from GQ. He also worked for Atlanta magazine, Life, and Sports Illustrated.

A reading by Martha Silano

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

listen: to an audio recording of this event

Martha Silano is the author of four books of poetry: What the Truth Tastes Like, Blue Positive, The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, and Reckless Lovely. She also co-edited, with Kelli Russell Agodon, The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice (Two Sylvias Press 2013). Her poems have appeared in such places as the Paris Review, American Poetry Review, and North American Review, where she won the 2014 James Hearst Poetry Prize, and have appeared in over two-dozen anthologies, including American Poetry: The Next Generation and The Best American Poetry 2009. Martha edits Crab Creek Review, curates Beacon Bards, a Seattle-based readings series, and teaches at Bellevue College.

Thursday, 3/20

Pataphysical Arts Night

Featuring: Craig Dworkin, Judith Goldman, Andrew Hugill, Paul "DJ Spooky" Miller, Michelle Taransky, and Christopher Vandegrift

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

Hosted by: Katie L. Price

RSVP: wh@writing.upenn.edu or call 215-746-POEM

listen: to an audio recording of this event

Join us for a night of music, poetry, and video that explores the world beyond metaphysics. Pataphysical Arts Night marks the beginning of Philadelphia a la Pataphysique — a series of programming that will explore the life, works, and influence of French modernist Alfred Jarry's "science of imaginary solutions," which he called pataphysics. Come see for yourself how Jarry continues to influence and inspire contemporary artists. For more information on all events, please visit https://www.english.upenn.edu/Conferences/pataphysics.

Craig Dworkin is the author of Reading the Illegible (Northwestern University Press, 2003) and No Medium (MIT Press, 2013) and the editor of five books: Architectures of Poetry (Rodopi, 2004); Language to Cover a Page: The Early Writing of Vito Acconci (MIT, 2006); The Consequence of Innovation: 21st Century Poetics (Roof, 2008); The Sound of Poetry/ The Poetry of Sound (with Marjorie Perloff, Chicago UP, 2009); and Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing (with Kenneth Goldsmith, Northwestern UP, 2010). He serves as Senior Editor to the Eclipse Archive.

Judith Goldman is the author of Vocoder, DeathStar/Rico-chet, and l.b.; or, catenaries; a new book, _____ Mt. (blank mount), is in the works. From 2005-2009, she co-edited the yearly journal War and Peace with Leslie Scalapino, while she currently edits poetry features for the online academic journal Postmodern Culture. She has taught creative writing and media aesthetics at University of Chicago and was the Holloway Poet at UC Berkeley in 2011. She joined the core faculty of the Poetics Program at SUNY, Buffalo in fall of 2012.

Andrew Hugill (M.A., Ph.D.) is a composer, researcher, and Director of Creative Computing at Bath Spa University, UK. He is the author of 'Pataphysics: A Useless Guide (MIT Press) and The Digital Musician (Routledge, 2008/2012). He is a Commandeur Requis of the Ordre de la Grande Gidouille in the Collegè de 'Pataphysique. He is an Associate Fellow of the Université de Paris, Sorbonne, and a member of the European Research Council. His most recent works include articles on: the American surrealist writer Montagu O'Reilly (Wayne Andrews); Duchamp, Beckett and chess; Percy Grainger's electronic music; Creative Computing; the audio-only game ‘Papa Sangre'; and semantic search. He has recently completed work on an online opera based on Jarry and Rabelais, entitled The Imaginary Voyage. His composition 'Land of Lace,' based on an episode from Faustroll, is currently being recorded for the BBC.

DJ Spooky aka Paul D. Miller is the executive editor of ORIGIN Magazine and is a composer, multimedia artist, editor and author. His DJ MIXER iPad app has seen more than 12 million downloads in the last year. In 2012-2013 he is the first artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC starting this fall. He's produced and composed work for Yoko Ono, Thurston Moore, and scores of artists and award-winning films. Miller's work as a media artist has appeared in the Whitney Biennial; The Venice Biennial for Architecture, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany; Kunsthalle, Vienna; The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and many other museums and galleries. His book Sound Unbound, an anthology of writings on electronic music and digital media is a best-selling title for MIT Press. He has been featured everywhere from Elle to CNN to SyFy.

Michelle Taransky, the author of Sorry Was In The Woods (Omnidawn 2013), and Barn Burned, Then, was selected by Marjorie Welish for the 2008 Omnidawn Poetry Prize. Taransky teaches courses in critical and creative writing at Penn, and is the Reviews Editor for the online poetry and poetics magazine Jacket2. She is currently teaching Writing by the Numb3rs, which looks at writing that does not separate inspiration, creativity and expression from data, logic, and rules.

Christopher Vandegrift is a new media artist and poet based in Philadelphia. Recent showings of his work include screenings at the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art and the 2014 Screening Scholarship and Media Festival at the Annenberg School for Communication. An audio piece for REM Magazine is also forthcoming.



Friday, 3/21

Saturday, 3/22

Sunday, 3/23

Monday, 3/24

Lunch with Anthony Wallace

EVENT ON APRIL 7TH!

12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

hosted by: Karen Rile

Anthony Wallace is a Senior Lecturer in the Arts and Sciences Writing Program at Boston University, where he is also Co-director of "Arts Now," a curriculum-based initiative to support the arts at BU. Tony has published poetry and fiction in literary journals including CutBank, Another Chicago Magazine, the Atlanta Review, River Styx, Sou'wester, 5-Trope, the Republic of Letters, and the Florida Review. His short story "The Old Priest" won a Pushcart Prize and was published last fall in Pushcart 2013. His short story collection The Old Priest is the winner of the 2013 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and was published last September by the University of Pittsburgh Press. His personal essay "In a Room with Rothko" received a 2014 Pushcart "Special Mention."

7:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

listen: to an audio recording of this event

LIVE at the Writers House is a long-standing collaboration between the Kelly Writers House and WXPN FM (88.5). Six times annually between September and April, Michaela Majoun hosts a one-hour broadcast of poetry, music, and other spoken-word art, along with one musical guest, all from our Arts Cafe onto the airwaves at WXPN. LIVE is made possible by generous support from BigRoc.

Tuesday, 3/25

Sensible Nonsense

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

hosted by: Arielle Brousse

listen: to an audio recording of this event

Join us for a celebration of The Sensible Nonsense Project, and help us honor the humor, pathos, and enduring wisdom of children's books! Six speakers will share stories about their own favorite childhood books, what those books taught them, and how those lessons continue to influence their adult lives. And stay on afterward for a delicious reception inspired by after-school snacks, and to get more information about how you, too, can participate in the project. In the meantime, visit The Sensible Nonsense Project at sensiblenonsense.us.

Wednesday, 3/26

DANIEL JONES: LOVE ILLUMINATED

Exploring Life's Most Mystifying Subject (With the Help of 50,000 Strangers)

12:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

hosted by: Jamie-Lee Josselyn

supported by: The Povich Fund for Journalism Programs

listen: to an audio recording of this event

Daniel Jones is a contributing editor at The New York Times, where he has edited the popular "Modern Love" column since its inception in 2004. His books include two essay anthologies, and The Bastard on the Couch: 27 Men Try Really Hard to Explain Their Feelings About Love, Loss, Fatherhood, and Freedom. His novel, After Lucy, was a finalist for the Barnes and Noble Discover Award. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Elle, Parade, Real Simple, Redbook, and elsewhere. He lives in Northampton, MA, with his wife, writer Cathi Hanauer, and their two children.

Speakeasy open mic night

7:30 PM in the Arts Cafe

hosted by: Rosa Escandon and Isa Oliveres

listen: to an audio recording of this event

Our Speakeasy Open Mic Night is held once a month. We invite writers to share their work, or the work of others, in our Arts Cafe. Speakeasy welcomes all kinds of readings, performances, spectacles, and happenings. Bring your poetry, your guitar, your dance troupe, your award-winning essay, or your stand up comedy to share. You should expect outrageous (and free!) raffles for things you didn't know you needed, occasional costumes, and, of course, community members who love writing.

Thursday, 3/27

ALAN LIGHT ON LEONARD COHEN'S "HALLELUJAH"

5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

hosted by: Anthony DeCurtis

How did one obscure song become an international anthem for human triumph and tragedy, a song each successive generation seems to feel they have discovered and claimed as uniquely their own? Celebrated music journalist Alan Light follows the improbable journey of "Hallelujah" straight to the heart of popular culture.

Alan Light is the author of The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah"—a book that offers an in-depth look at the history of Cohen’s much covered song "Hallelujah." He is the co-author of Gregg Allman's memoir, My Cross to Bear, a New York Times best seller. He was a founding editor of Vibe Magazine, and served as editor in chief of Vibe, Spin and Tracks. Light writes for the New York Times and Rolling Stone, among other publications, and is currently working on a book about Prince.

Friday, 3/28

Saturday, 3/29

Sunday, 3/30

Monday, 3/31

T.C. Boyle

This program is now full!

6:30 PM in the Arts Cafe

listen: to an audio recording of this event

T.C. Boyle, often referred to as a "maximalist" writer for the way his rich prose stands in contrast to a more fashionable minimalism, is an author unafraid to explore. His short stories and novels bring readers to both coasts of the United States, to Mexico, to rural inland settings, to Alaska, to small islands, to the year 2036. Boyle himself has lived and written in some of these places, as he started his writing career as an undergrad at SUNY Potsdam, then completed an MFA at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop and a PhD in nineteenth-century British literature at the same institution, finally moving to California where he is now professor of creative writing and English at the University of Southern California.

The "maximalist" label is fitting not just at the level of a Boyle sentence, but for the scope of what his short stories and novels might contain. Astronomy, math, culinary expertise, a chimpanzee hiding in the back bedroom, one never quite knows what elements one of Boyle's narrators might be faced with. On this topic, Boyle says in a 2000 Paris Review interview: "When you're a kid in school and you wonder, Jesus, why do I have to take trigonometry, why do I have to take this or that? and your teacher says, Well, everything you know will be good for you in future life—it's true. But only if you're a writer." Boyle's work such as Tortilla Curtain also uses fiction to explore social activism, on issues of immigration, race, environmentalism and others. He has received many awards for his writing: several of his stories have been selected for Best American Stories; his novel World's End was a National Book Award finalist and the PEN/Faulkner Award for best novel of the year. Boyle was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2009.