Major Fall Event:
Sunday, November 6: "GREAT WRITERS AT BARNARD," A Day of Conversations with Celebrated Authors
 On Sunday, Nov. 6, 2005, Barnard College will bring together more than 50 celebrated writers for conversations open to the public about current themes in writing and books (post-September 11 books and movies; writing across cultures; writing for screen, stage, and television, among others). "Great Writers at Barnard" -- a gathering of notable writers who graduated from Barnard College -- will include Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award finalists, Tony, Emmy, and Golden Globe winners, and New York Times Notable and Oprah Book Club authors.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Anna Quindlen (and chair of the Barnard Trustees) will be the moderator of the main event (10:30 a.m.-12:00) on "What Makes a Writer?" Joining her will be fellow Barnard graduates Ann Brashares (popular Traveling Pants series for young adults); National Book Award finalist and Oprah Book Club author Edwidge Danticat ( Krik? Krak!, Breath, Eyes, Memory, The Dew Breaker ); Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri ( The Namesake, Interpreter of Maladies ); and bestselling author and O'Henry Prize winner Mary Gordon ( Final Payments, The Company of Women, Men and Angels, The Other Side, Pearl ), also a Barnard faculty member.
The event draws on Barnard's remarkable literary alumnae, offering New Yorkers insightful discussion from today's most admired women writers. "Great Writers at Barnard" will be an unprecedented gathering of major authors who went to Barnard.
Program highlights will include:
• "Everyone Wants to Write a Movie" with NPR correspondent Susan Stamberg (moderator); Golden Globe winning screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal (upcoming Bee Season , Losing Isaiah , Running on Empty ) and Delia Ephron (film adaptation, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants , You've Got Mail )
• "Books and Movies in the Post-September 11 World" with Lynne Sharon Schwartz ( The Writing on the Wall ); Stacey d'Erasmo ( New York Times Notable author ), Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, Jessica Stern ( former National Security Council member; author of books on terrorism ) and Newsweek editor Alexis Gelber (moderator)
• "Memorable Women in Fiction" with novelists Mary Gordon , Elizabeth Benedict, Hortense Calisher, Suki Kim, and Erica Jong
• "The Art of Humor and Satire" with novelists Anne Bernays , Valerie Block, Jane Leavy and Cathleen Schine
• "Getting Published" with top agents Molly Friedrich and Ellen Geiger and their rising new authors, Lauren Sanders and Meg Mullins
• "Writing for On- and Off- Broadway" with Tony Award winners Ellen McLaughlin and Jeanine Tesori and playwright Julia Jordan
• "The Art of the Memoir" with Jeannette Walls (acclaimed The Glass House ) and Daphne Merkin (forthcoming Melancholy Baby on depression)
• "Writing Across Cultures" with National Book Award Finalist Edwidge Danticat ( Krik? Krak! ) and Suki Kim ( The Interpreter )
• Conversations about journalism and magazines with reporters, critics, and editors of The New York Times , The New York Daily News , CNN, CBS Sunday Morning , Newsweek, Self, Seventeen , and Martha Stewart Omnimedia
• Special guests Faye and Jonathan Kellerman , wife and husband masters of the thriller genre, and bestselling authors of the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus detective series, will discuss the mystery/thriller genre
TICKETS AND PROGRAM
Seating will be limited. Tickets are $65, including lunch, and are on sale now. To view the program schedule, writers' biographies, and purchase tickets, please visit the website www.barnard.edu/writers/events.html or call Esterow Events: 212-626-6527. The morning session will be open to all ticketholders. The afternoon will include 24 panel discussions; ticketholders will select two panels.
BARNARD'S EXCEPTIONAL WRITING TRADITION
Through its history, the College has produced many groundbreaking writers, including Zora Neale Hurston ( Their Eyes Were Watching God ); Patricia Highsmith ( The Talented Mr. Ripley ); poet and essayist June Jordan (the most published African-American author with 25 major works); Erica Jong ( Fear of Flying ) and Lydia Davis, master of the short story. Eight graduates have won the Pulitzer Prize and three received MacArthur "genius" fellowships for writing. Novelist Lionel Shriver, a Barnard graduate, this year became the first American women to win the prestigious Orange Prize. The U.K.-based award is given each year to a female author writing in English. Overall, 1,300 of Barnard's living alumnae are published authors.
Many believe it is no accident that more winners of the MacArthur "genius award" went to Barnard (nine) than any college. Barnard instills its graduates with a special kind of intellectual and creative independence and emphasizes, if not requires, a strong individual voice -- a quality demanded of the accomplished writer. At the same time, it takes a certain independent-minded individual to decide to come to a small women's college in New York City. In the urban mix and alongside a great research university like Columbia, the individual's authentic voice is constantly being tested and stretched. Notes author Mary Gordon, a Barnard alumna and faculty member, "Barnard has a seat at the table in a great city."
In addition, Barnard has a long tradition of educating the gifted daughters of recent immigrants to this country; a number of them have become important writers, including prize-winning authors Edwidge Danticat and Jhumpa Lahiri, whom will attend the conference.
Others have pointed to the allure of New York City as a special place for inspired writers, to the strength of the College's writing program at all levels of the curriculum, and to the special writing fellowship program in which students mentor and tutor fellow students on writing. And while all of these factors in some way contribute to the wealth of writers at the College, the writers themselves often note their special relationships with faculty who encouraged them as writers.
Anna Quindlen has said she might never have become a journalist had not a professor of women's history (and alumna) encouraged her by writing at the bottom of a paper: "Have you submitted your work to Ms., New York magazine, etc.? You are a real writer."
The network of alumnae writers -- often present at the College for readings and discussions -- builds upon the writing tradition at the College, as does the network of editors and agents among Barnard graduates.
Novelist Elizabeth Benedict has written that her years at Barnard (1972-76) were instrumental in her becoming a novelist. In 1973, she vividly remembers attending a panel of alumnae writers, among them Erica Jong, whose acclaimed bestseller, Fear of Flying was about to be published. Benedict and Jong will be together for a discussion on "Memorable Women in Fiction."
For more information, please contact Suzanne Trimel in the Barnard Office of Public Affairs: 212-854-2037, strimel@barnard.edu
WNYC is the media sponsor of "Great Writers at Barnard."
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