close

Silverstein Fills in for Wertheimer in Brown Bag Lecture

Due to unforeseen circumstances, prose writer-in-residence Linda K. Wertheimer had to cancel her Week Seven visit to the Chautauqua Writers’ Center.

Clara Silverstein, program director of the Writers’ Center, will give a special Brown Bag presentation in her place called “ ‘The Past is Never Dead’: How Writers Use History” at 12:15 p.m. August 12 on the porch of the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall.

“From [Geraldine Brooks’] The Secret Chord, which recreates ancient Israel, to a memoir from the 1990s, history can inform and enrich any setting,” Silverstein said. “Details from the past help writers more fully imagine a story. [We’ll learn] about creative ways to do historical research that don’t involve dust-covered boxes in archives, and see how writers find the balance between the momentum of a narrative and its context, validating William Faulkner’s statement, ‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past.’ ”

blank

The author Ryan Pait

Ryan Pait gets a different haircut every summer to keep the people of Chautauqua guessing. This is his fourth summer at The Chautauquan Daily, so if you’re tired of him, that’s OK. He recently graduated with his master’s degree in literature from Western Kentucky University. Don’t ask him about what he’s doing after this summer, but do ask him about the Nicole Kidman renaissance, the return of “Game of Thrones” and what he’s reading.