Literary Arts

Poet-in-residence Aimee Nezhukumatathil has a deep affinity with the late marine biologist Rachel Carson, who once wrote “the more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”

Writers at Chautauqua will have a chance to take out their novel or screenplay and confer with a literary agent this week at the Writers’ Center. Ken Sherman will hold workshops from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. today and Wednesday at the Alumni Hall ballroom.

This week, the Writers’ Center will launch a new batch of poets and help prose writers fine-tune their voices. To kick off their week-long stay at Chautauqua, poet-in-residence Aimee Nezhukumatathil and writer-in-residence Ron MacLean will both read selections from their work at 3:30 p.m. Sunday on the front porch of Alumni Hall.

A longtime visitor to Chautauqua’s Amphitheater, Harvard University professor Michael Sandel returns to ask the question: What’s the right thing to do? Sandel will speak twice today. He will give a morning lecture at 10:45 a.m. in the Amphitheater, as well as a Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle lecture at 3:30 p.m. in the Hall of Philosophy. Sandel’s lectures come to Chautauqua nearing the end of the Week Two theme of “Applied Ethics: Government and the Search for the Common Good.”

As a Civil Rights crusader, the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for equality runs alongside the Week Two theme of “Government and the Search for the Common Good.” Yet his gospel of nonviolence was a dangerous one to preach. The first Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle selection for Week Two is Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for his Assassin by Hampton Sides.

In the south of Switzerland, they speak Italian. So the first time Sharon Creech visited Switzerland in 1982, she made sure to learn Italian. But when the Newbery Award-winning author of Walk Two Moons returned to the country in 2007, she found that hopping between English and Italian was much more difficult than it used to be.

Some say poetry should address only universal themes, while others argue the work of a poet is inseparable from his life. Week Two poet-in-residence Andrew Mulvania will address the debate that is older than Walt Whitman. Mulvania will present his lecture “Poetry and the Self: Autobiography in American Poetry” at 12:15 p.m. today on the front porch of Alumni Hall.

The writers-in-residence for Week Two will help writers channel the dead in their poetry and push their fiction characters into danger. Poet-in-residence Andrew Mulvania and prose writer-in-residence Toni Jensen will lead workshops throughout the week, and both will give readings of their work at 3:30 p.m. Sunday on the front porch of Alumni Hall.

The summer’s theme for the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle is challenge, and for the war-torn African children of Say You’re One of Them, the season’s first selection, their greatest challenge is survival. Uwem Akpan’s short stories detail the children caught in the crossfire, both their tragedy and their strength. The author will speak at the CLSC Roundtable at 3:30 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy.

The sun dazzled Mole’s sleepy eyes as he poked his nose out from his chilly underground home into the sweet-smelling spring air of the English countryside. The thrill of adventure beckoned as Mole set off in pursuit of what would soon become one of the most beloved tales of children’s literature, The Wind in the Willows. At 4:15 p.m. today in the Garden Room of Alumni Hall, the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Young Readers Program will meet to discuss the most binding theme of this classic novel — friendship.

There are obvious ways to enjoy summer, like swimming, bike riding, ice cream and picnics. But for the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle’s Young Readers Program, the summer — which is full of talking animals, angels, poets, unlikely heroes and adventure — is anything but typical.

A whole new cast of writers and poets will return this summer to live at the Literary Arts Center at Alumni Hall. The Writers’ Center will welcome both new and old writers-in-residence for lectures and workshops, including several new additions to the programming.

Every book is a challenge: to be enjoyed, to be finished and, especially, to be understood. This summer, the 2011 Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle’s 2011 reading list presents a season-long theme of challenge.