MFA Residency Public Lecture and Reading Schedule for Sunday, January 6th

Sunday, January 6th     

Readings and lectures are held in the Region Room of Blue Ridge Center at Blue Ridge Assembly. 84 Blue Ridge Circle; Black Mountain, NC 

Faculty Lectures        

9:30 AM                   

PABLO MEDINA ~ What are We Reading, the Poem  or the Translation?

We live in a translated culture. Many of the works we consider part of the Western canon have been translated from languages most of us do not have access to, from ancient Greek to Hebrew to Anglo-Saxon, and we make judgments on these works based on their translations, not the originals. When we read a poem translated from a language we do not know, we conveniently assume that the translation is equivalent to the original poem. This lecture will explore how we read translations and how we assign to them the same literary value as their originals. We will look carefully into Anne Carson’s versions of Sappho, Robert Lowell’s Imitations, and Eliot Weinberger’s translation of Vicente Huidobro’s Altazor.

10:45 AM                   

MARISA SILVER ~ The Mind of a Child                                                                                                 

Who are children? We think because we have been a child, or because we have children of our own, or know some kids really well, that we have access to what goes on inside their minds, how they perceive themselves, the world, and the adults who rule them. Yet, when considering our own childhoods, we are subject to memory, which is a fickle reporter at best. As for our children, do we really know what or how they think? Are their consciousnesses merely projections, overburdened by adult presupposition and our tendency to psychologize and explain?  In this lecture, we will discuss the particular challenges that arise when we put our work in the narrative hands of a child by looking at issues of narrative distance, perception and experience of time, language choice, and the child’s sense of his or her body especially as relates to sexuality. Texts discussed might include Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura, The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski, Room, by Emma Donoghue, What Maisie Knew, by Henry James, and An American Childhood by Annie Dillard.

Faculty Readings 8:15 PM

Hanna Pylväinen

Alan Shapiro

Anna Solomon

Daniel Tobin

Laura van den Berg

The public is welcome to attend the morning lectures and evening readings in fiction and poetry offered during the Master of Fine Arts Program winter residency.  Events last approximately one hour. Admission is free. The schedule is subject to change. PLEASE NOTE: The winter residency is being held at Blue Ridge Assemblyin Black Mountain, NC, not on the Warren Wilson College campus.

For more information, call the MFA Office: (828) 771-371