Key West Literary Seminar
"SPIRIT OF PLACE: American Literary Landscapes"
January 10-13, 2002
2002 Seminar Schedule
Session I
January 10-13, 2002
Please note: Schedule and participants are subject to change. All events take place at the San Carlos Institute, or within walking distance, as noted.
| Thursday, January 10, 2002 | |
| 1:00 - 5:00 P.M. | Registration, San Carlos Institute, 516 Duval Street |
| 2:00 and 4:00 P.M. | Writers' Walks, one hour, one mile guided walking tour of literary Key West. |
5:00 - 6:30 P.M.
|
Wine and Cheese Reception at Lucky Street Gallery, 1120 White Street, featuring a special exhibit of oils, watercolors and hand colored photographs by Lincoln Perry, Liv Kristin Robinson, and A.D. Tinkham. |
| 7:30 P.M. | Introductory Remarks, David Ethridge, President, Key West Literary Seminar. |
| 8:00-9:00 P.M. | 2002 John Hersey Memorial Lecture: The Spirit of Place: Wildlife and the Land in Literature Presented by Peter Matthiessen |
| 9:30-11:00 P.M. | Gala Reception at the garden of the Wreckers' Museum/The Oldest House, 322 Duval Street |
| Friday, January 11, 2002 | |
| 9:00-9:30 A.M. | Coffee, tea, and pastries |
| 9:00-10:30 A.M. | Allan Gurganus: My Childhood Landscape, Before And After The Flood Of 1999: Geography as the feeder stream for narrative both personal and mythic. |
| 10:30-10:45 A.M. | Break |
| 10:45 A.M.-12:00 P.M. | How Does The Writer Capture Place?
There is a distinction between creating a setting and capturing spirit of place. What are the elements of that distinction? Sometimes sense of place is dominated by geography, sometimes by culture. What else defines place? What is the place of memory in capturing/distorting place? Is research sufficient to recreate place? With Russell Banks, Richard Ford, Peter Matthiessen, Annick Smith, Deanne Urmy Moderated by Jay Parini |
| 12:00-2:00 P.M. | Lunch |
| 2:00-2:30 P.M. | Kent Haruf: Finding The Universal In Ordinary Places, A Reading From Plainsong |
| 2:30-4:00 P.M. | Varied American Landscapes: What Makes A Place Special?
Is literary Regionalism possible in the homogenized, franchised culture of contemporary America? What are the interesting, defining characteristics of place? Is today's regionalism less of place than of different types of place; that is, urban, suburban, village, and country? With Russell Banks, Kent Haruf, William Kittredge, Maxine Kumin and Lee Smith Moderated by Valerie Miner |
| 4:30-5:30 P.M. | Champagne Reception at the Audubon House and Tropical Gardens, 205 Whitehead Street. The reception will be held in the John Malcolm Brinnin Commemorative Butterfly Garden. |
| 7:30-8:00 P.M. | A Reading From The Kingdom of Brooklyn With Merrill Joan Gerber |
| 8:00-9:00 P.M. | Poetry Of Place: Readings With Maxine Kumin and Jay Parini |
| Saturday, January 12, 2002 | |
| 9:00-9:30 A.M. | Coffee, tea, and pastries |
| 9:30-10:00 A.M. | Writers Have To Accept Loneliness A reading from The Wintering and reflections by Joan Williams |
| 10:00-10:30 A.M. | How Place Has Influenced My Writing A reading from The French Broad and The Tall Woman by Wilma Dykeman |
| 10:30-10:45 A.M. | Break |
| 10:45 A.M.-12:15 P.M. | How Do The Stories We Tell About Ourselves And About Our Communities In Relationship To Place Shape Our Perceptions Of Place?
How does place affect your perception as a writer? How has your place of origin influenced you as a writer? How has your writing been influenced by place? What is the role of culture in the creation of place? With Dagoberto Gilb, Allan Gurganus, Kent Haruf, Mona Simpson, Joy Williams Moderated by Jay Parini |
| 2:00-2:45 P.M. | Landscape and Memory: Where the Kudzu Creeps With Hal Crowther and Lee Smith |
| 2:45-3:00 P.M. | Break |
| 3:00-4:30 P.M. | Imagined Places: How do you compose the American landscape? The Distinction between mental and physical landscapes. The place of memory in writing.
With Richard Ford, Dagoberto Gilb, Mona Simpson, Joy Williams Moderated by Valerie Miner |
| 4:30-5:00 P.M. | Gathering For Writers
With Tim Seldes and Deanne Urmy |
| 7:30-9:00 P.M. | Our literary heritage: Robert Richardson
A Reminiscence of Eudora Welty from her friend and literary agent, Timothy Seldes
Featuring readings from Cather, Faulkner, O'Connor, Steinbeck, Thoreau, Welty, Whitman, Wolfe With Richard Grusin and Diana Verlain |
| 9:30-11:00 P.M. | Champagne Reception at The Key West Museum of Art and History at the Custom House |
| Sunday, January 13, 2002 | |
| 9:30-10:00 A.M. | Coffee, Tea, Pastries |
| 10:00-10:30 A.M. | Maxine Kumin: "The Need for Home" "I am especially lucky because my daily life provides a metaphor for my work, allowing me instant access at all times, crosshatching reality with the snail tracks of the unconscious, enabling me to pull poems up out of the well of the commonplace. It is a paradox, living in isolation in the country--it is making the world over as you want it to be, while at the same time coexisting with nature." --Maxine Kumin from A Sense of Place |
| 10:30 A.M.-12:00 P.M. | Moral Vertigo: Anomie
What happens when the bonds that tie people together are loosened and the system of common norms and values collapses? What happens to the writer when there's no-there there? What happens when place changes? With Russell Banks, Richard Ford, Kent Haruf, Maxine Kumin, Joy Williams Moderated by Hal Crowther |
| 12:00-2:30 P.M. | Friends Of The Library Luncheon Reception |
| 2:00-2:45 P.M. | The Nomadic Heart With Mona Simpson, Annick Smith and William Kittredge |
| 2:45-4:15 P.M. | The Nature Of Place In My Writing How does a writer create a sense of place? How does a place sound? With Dagoberto Gilb, Allan Gurganus, William Kittredge, Lee Smith Moderated by Valerie Miner |