Category Archives: Writers’ Workshop Series

Writers’ Workshop Series Opens with Joan Wickersham

This year's series will feature lectures by George Colt, Jen duBois, and Anne Fadiman
Joan Wickersham. Photo by Michael Lionstar
Joan Wickersham. Photo by Michael Lionstar

An author who writes of heartbreak, regret, and unbidden intimacy will lead off Williston Northampton School’s long-running author lecture series, now in its 17th year.

Author and essayist Joan Wickersham will present the first in this year’s Writers’ Workshop Series on September 23 at 7:00 p.m. in the Dodge Room, Reed Campus Center.

Ms. Wickersham is the acclaimed author of a book of fiction, The News from Spain: Seven Variations on a Love Story (Knopf 2012); a memoir, The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order (Harcourt 2008); and a novel, The Paper Anniversary (Viking Adult, 1993).

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Mary Jo Salter on Common Human Experience

DSC_0821The best ideas and strangest rhymes come to her when she is half asleep said poet Mary Jo Salter on November 11 during her Writers’ Workshop Series lecture at the Williston Northampton School.

Madeleine Blais, co-founder of the Writers’ Workshop Series, likened Ms. Salter’s poetry to “the gift of water from ice,” in her introduction of the John Hopkins professor. Ms. Salter was the fourth and final speaker in the 16th annual series.

“She takes the moment that is utterly forgettable and turns it into something utterly memorable, which is to say her words are shapeshifting and miraculous,” said Ms. Blais.

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Elinor Lipman: Fiction Writing is Creative Lying

2013_1105_Chattman_Writers' Workshop_Elinor Lipman at podiumSixteen years ago, authors Madeleine Blais P’00, ’04 and Elinor Lipman P’00 combined forces to create the Writers’ Workshop Series, a long-running lecture series that invites fiction and non-fiction writers, playwrights, journalists, and poets to speak to students and to the general public.

On Monday, November 5, Ms. Blais introduced her fellow co-founder by first listing several of the renowned authors that had visited the Williston Northampton School since the series began in 1998: Wally Lamb, Arthur Golden, Anita Shreve, Tracy Kidder, and Nikky Finney, among others.

“There are two things all of these authors have in common,” Ms. Blais said. “They are all performing at the top of their game… And they’re all personal friends of Elinor’s, who she talked into coming to talk to you.”

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Rebecca Makkai: The Distance Needed to Write a Story

RM-Blog-2“Fiction becomes interesting when a line is crossed,” said author Rebecca Makkai during the first public lecture of the 16th Annual Writers’ Workshop on October 3.

In her lecture Ms. Makkai addressed how she came up with the idea for her award-winning first novel, The Borrower, which is centered on the relationship between rebellious librarian Lucy Hall and 10-year-old book lover Ian Drake, whose parents are forcing him to attend weekly anti-gay classes. Kidnapping, followed by a road trip from Missouri to Vermont, and references to classic children’s texts are all facets of the plot in Ms. Makkai’s novel. Continue reading

Patricia McCormick: Sadness with a Redemptive Quality

2013_10_Chattman_Patricia McCormick_profile Patricia McCormick doesn’t pick the lightest fare to write about. Topics of her award-winning novels have included self-harm, teenage substance abuse, sexual slavery, and Cambodian genocide.

In an introduction to her fellow author on October 7, Madeleine Blais P’00, ’04 recounted how Ms. McCormick’s son once asked, “Where do you come up with your ideas for books, Mom? What do you do, Google the word sad?”

Yet, Ms. Blais said that of the people she knows, Ms. McCormick is one of the upbeat and optimistic—sharing a quality of all good writers: a deep and abiding belief that stories matter.

“She gave you a very good summary of the books,” agreed Ms. McCormick. “They are sad, but they all have a redemptive quality.”

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