Visiting Fellows & Speakers
Visiting Fellows
John Sacret Young
Spring 2013 Seminar
Literature 036: "Print the Legend: Screenwriting"
Thursday, 2:45 - 5:30 PM, KRV LC63
Screenings Tuesday evenings in the Pickford Auditorium
Course Description
This course will explore the tension between fact and fiction, reality and memory, and how it is captured and depicted in books, memoirs, movies, plays, and screenplays.
The course will investigate how there are often critical and crucial differences between the events of history, both current and past, and even our own lives—the actual experiences—the so-called facts—and what may be the truths or inventions we find in them. How we as a culture, and personally, in search of greater understanding and meaning and importance, knowingly or unknowingly, transform the raw material of biography or autobiography. How this is the case in the creation of our mythology—from the cave paintings to today's network nightly news. How in anecdote or in writing or filming—this is an essence of both human nature and art. How we come to, (quoting John Ford's film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence) "print the legend."
As Barry Levinson says in his film Poliwood, "Certain truths that aren't truths become truths...when you find the right way to tell the story that is the story."
The course will assign books as examples, screen relevant films, invite distinguished guests, and crucially have critical writing and screenwriting exercises for students to illustrate, reveal, and learn from well-known works and from the student's own experiences how we all do this, how we all are Storytellers.
Those interested in taking the course should sign up with the CMC Registrar.
John Sacret Young has often written about men and women at war and the aftermath they carry. He won his first Writers Guild of America Award for his adaptation of Philip Caputo’s book A Rumor of War, the only American mini-series made about Vietnam.
He co-created with William Broyles, Jr., wrote, and executive produced the groundbreaking series China Beach. For his work on the show John received five Emmy and four Writers Guild Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations and one win as Best Drama Series, and both Peabody and People’s Choice Awards. The WGA honored him with his second Writer’s Guild Award for an episode he also directed.
He is currently writing a script about Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a piece set in the aftermath of World War I as men and women came home from the war that was then thought of as the war that would end all wars.
Ray Ryan
"Publishing Academic Research in the Humanities"
Monday, January 28, 2013
12:00 PM
Parents Dining Room
Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum
Is there a crisis in academic publishing, particularly in the humanities but also the social sciences? Is the scholarly monograph in jeopardy? What kind of research is valued in scholarly publishing? These are the questions that Ray Ryan will attempt to address from his wide experience as an editor at Cambridge University Press.
Ray Ryan is the Senior Commissioning Editor for English and American Literature at Cambridge University Press. He is the author of Ireland and Scotland: Literature and Culture, State and Nation, 1966-2000 (Oxford 2002), editor of Writing in the Irish Republic: Literature, Culture, Politics 1949-1999, (Macmillan 2001), and, with Liam McIlvanney, co-editor of Ireland and Scotland: Culture and Society (Four Courts 2005) and The Good of the Novel (Faber 2011), which has received a great deal of attention in the United States and Europe: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/10/the-good-of-the-critic.html.
He also founded and edited Bullán: An Irish Studies Journal for ten years and received his doctorate from Oxford University.
Pico Iyer
Golo Mann Distinguished Lecturer
Writer in Residence, April 2013
Pico Iyer is the author of ten books: his first, Video Night in Kathmandu (1988), has appeared on many lists of the top travel-books of all time, and his second, The Lady and the Monk (1991), was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award in the category of Current Interest. His first novel, Cuba and the Night (1995), was optioned six times and then bought by Hollywood, and his book The Global Soul (2000), has inspired multi-media shows, conferences and movies around the world. In addition, he has written a film-script for Miramax, initiated a lecture series at the University of Toronto, starred in a commercial on CNN and been a Fellow more than once of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
His latest book, The Man Within My Head, came out to widespread acclaim in early 2012.
Visiting Speakers
Sharon Olds
Monday, February 11, 2013
6:45 PM
Security Pacific Dining Room
Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum
Sharon Olds is the author of eight volumes of poetry. Her poetry, says Michael Ondaatje, is “pure fire in the hands,” and David Leavitt in the Voice Literary Supplement describes her work as “remarkable for its candor, its eroticism, and its power to move.” With sensuality, humor, sprung rhythm, and remarkable imagery, she expresses truths about domestic and political violence, sexuality, family relationships, love, and the body. Often compared to “confessional” poets, she has been much praised for the courage, emotional power, and extraordinary physicality of her work. A reviewer for The New York Times hailed her poetry for its vision: “Like Whitman, Ms. Olds sings the body in celebration of a power stronger than political oppression.”
Born in San Francisco, Sharon Olds studied at Stanford University and Columbia University. Her numerous honors include a National Endowment for the Arts grant; a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship; the San Francisco Poetry Center Award for her first collection, Satan Says (1980); and the Lamont Poetry Selection and the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Dead and the Living (1983). Named New York State Poet Laureate (1998 – 2000), Olds teaches graduate poetry workshops at New York University (now in its 21st year) and the writing workshop she helped found at a 900-bed state hospital for the severely disabled. She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science. Sharon Olds’ latest poetry collection is One Secret Thing (Fall 2008), which was a finalist for the T. S. Eliot Prize & the Forward Prize. Her next collection, Stag's Leap, will be published in September 2012 (Knopf) and went on to win the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry in a year that saw a record 131 submissions.
Watch video full screen on YouTube.
Naomi Nye
Thursday, February 28, 2013
6:45 PM
Security Pacific Dining Room
Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum
Naomi Shihab Nye describes herself as a "wandering poet." She has spent 37 years traveling the country and the world leading writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio. She draws from this rich patchwork of cultural heritages and widespread experiences to write verse that attests to our shared humanity.
Nye is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes. She has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and Witter Bynner Fellow (Library of Congress). She has received a Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, four Pushcart Prizes, and numerous honors for her children's literature, including two Jane Addams Children's book awards and, most recently, the 2013 NSK Prize for Children's Literature. Her collection 19 Varieties of Gazelle was a finalist for the National Book Award. Nye's work has been presented on National Public Radio on A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac, and she has been featured on two PBS specials: "The Language of Life with Bill Moyers" and "The United States of Poetry." In January 2010 Nye was elected to the Board of Chancellors of the American Academy of Poets.
Watch video full screen on YouTube.
Victor Masayesva
Monday, March 4, 2013
3:00 PM Screening of "Imagining Indians"
Pickford Auditorium
Dinner, Discussion, and Screening of "Ritual Clowns" Following"
On March 4, Victor Masayesva (Hopi) will screen his new version of the important documentary Ritual Clowns (1988). Through poetic visualization and lyrical translation of Hopi myths, rituals, and history, he explores the evolving and enduring role of the clown in Hopi society. This experimental video is eclectic in its treatment of the illusory ritual clown figures through a combination of live video, ancient oral traditions and computer-generated animation. Maintaining the perspective of the clown as a mirror of human behavior, the film explores the acerbic and ritually cleansing roles of humour, parody, reversals, and prophecy in Southwest Native American rituals and ceremonies.
Following the 40-minute screening, Victor will discuss the use of humour in traditional storytelling and how oral traditions influence his work.
Victor Masayesva is a Hopi media artist with deep knowledge and understanding of the Hopi cultural practices. His visually and intellectually complex layering of video and audio effects, still photographs and hand-painting contrast aspects of Native American cultures with the crippling perceptions and influences of white culture. Raised on Hotevilla on Third Mesa in Hopi, Masayesva graduated from Princeton University, majoring in literature and studying photography with Emmet Gowin. He has been honored with numerous awards including the University of Arizona Distinguished Alumni Award, the Gold Hugo at Chicago Festival, Two Rivers Visionary Award, Taos Festival's distinguished filmmaker award and the American Film Institute's Maya Deren Award.
Girl Rising, A Documentary
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
3:00 PM Screening
Pickford Auditorium
Dinner and Discussion with Production Manager Alex Dionne following the screening
Around the world, millions of girls face barriers to education that boys do not: early forced marriage, domestic slavery, sex trafficking, gender violence and discrimination, lack of access to health care, and school fees. Breaking these barriers will be crucial in breaking cycles of poverty and political oppression.
Girl Rising is an innovative documentary film which journeys around the globe to witness the strength of the human spirit and the power of education to change the world. From Academy-Award nominated director Richard E. Robbins, Girl Rising spotlights the stories of unforgettable girls born into unforgiving circumstances. It captures their dreams, their voices, and their remarkable lives.
Each girl’s story is transformed for the screen by an acclaimed writer from her native country: Marie Arana from Peru, Edwidge Danticat from Haiti, Mona Elthaway from Egypt, Aminatta Forna from Sierra Leone, Zarghuna Kargar from Afghanistan, Maaza Mengiste from Ethiopia, Sooni Traaporevala from India, Manjushree Thapa from Nepal, and Loung Ung from Cambodia. Cate Blanchett, Priyanaka Chopra, Selena Gomez, Anne Hathaway, Selma Hayak, Alicia Keys, Chloe Moretz, Liam Neeson, Meryl Streep, and Kerry Washington all contribute voice performances to the film, which features original music from Academy Award winner Rachel Portman, in collaboration with Hans Zimmer.
By sharing their personal journeys, the girls of Girl Rising become our teachers. As one of them says, “I feel as though I have power. . .I can do anything. And I have important things to do.”
The trailer for the film can be found at http://10x10act.org/girl-rising/ or on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJsvklXhYaE
Allison Davis O'Keefe
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Allison Davis O'Keefe graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 2000 with a degree in Environment, Economics and Politics.
She spent nine years working for CBS News, covering Congress from Washington, DC and National news from New York City. Allison was a member of the CBS News team that won an Emmy for its coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She traveled extensively covering the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections.
Allison resigned as a Producer of the CBS Weekend News in 2009 to attend the International Center for Photography in New York City. Following a life-long passion, she earned a certificate in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography. Allison's photographs have appeared in Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, CBS News.com, and on the CBS Evening News.
Over the last ten years, Allison has traveled to Europe, Africa, South America and Asia, including such out-of-the-way places as Tibet, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Antarctica. Never leaving the camera behind, Allison has sought to capture a sense of place and community with her photography.
Allison documented the 2010 - 2011 season of the University of North Dakota “Fighting Sioux” hockey team. This led to the publication by Burn Magazine of her book “One Goal.”