The Chautauquan Daily

Dame Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton answer questions from the audience Friday morning in the Amphitheater. Photo by Greg Funka.

Andrews, Hamilton discuss importance of hope in children’s literature

June 29, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 1 Comment

Themes of heroism and hope may seem too simple for today’s literature, but they are still a priority in children’s books.

Dame Julie Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton had a conversation with Roger Rosenblatt during Friday’s morning lecture about the importance of hope in children’s books and their experience collaborating with each other to write books.

Andrews’ love for literature came from her father, who loved to read literature, to read to her and to make her read. It inspired her, and she passed her passion on to her own children.

Morning Lecture Recaps

dumpy the dump truck, emma walton hamilton, Featured, Greg Funka, julie andrews, laurence leveille, roger rosenblatt

Collins shares thoughts on shift in methods of writing poetry

June 28, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

If Billy Collins were a child today, he would not be drawn to poetry.

Collins’ earliest memory of writing was from when he was 10 years old. He sat in the back seat of his parents’ car as his father drove down the highway. On the East River, a sailboat went by. Collins had a literary reaction to the sight and asked his mother for a piece of paper.

The idea that he could write poetry himself appealed to Collins.

“It italicized your isolation,” Collins said. “It gave your isolation a kind of nobility or a cause, so I’m not sure if poetry would have the same appeal to me today.”

Morning Lecture Recaps

Billy Collins, Featured, laurence leveille, Michelle Kanaar, morning lecture, poetry, roger rosenblatt, sydney maltese

Renowned poet Collins joins Rosenblatt, presents for CLSC today

June 27, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Billy Collins doesn’t care if everybody reads poetry — he just wants a lot of people to read his.

Collins, the former U.S. poet laureate, said people who don’t read poems either stopped after high school or never picked it up in the first place. But after writing hundreds of poems and winning prestigious awards, he’s convinced there’s still an audience.

Collins will present a “reading with commentary” of his book, Horoscopes for the Dead, at 3:30 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy. He will also appear on the morning lecture platform as Roger Rosenblatt’s guest at 10:45 a.m. in the Amphitheater.

Morning Lecture Previews

180 more: extraordinary poems for every day, Amphitheater, ballistics, Billy Collins, Featured, hall of philosophy, Horoscopes for the Dead, Jennifer Shore, morning lecture, roger rosenblatt, the art of drowning

Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author, talks with Roger Rosenblatt at the Ampitheater on Wednesday. Photo by Adam Birkan.

Wolitzer discusses women in writing, humor advice

June 27, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Audience members erupted into laughter time and time again as Meg Wolitzer and Roger Rosenblatt exchanged witty remarks during Wednesday’s morning lecture.

The humor and wit seeded throughout the conversation demonstrated Wolitzer’s philosophy on its use in novels.

“Humor in a novel has to exist the way humor in a conversation exists,” she said. “It comes out of character.”

Between the jokes and laughter, Rosenblatt and Wolitzer discussed female authors, decisions writers make and character development in novels.

Morning Lecture Recaps

Adam Birkan, comedy, Featured, humor, laurence leveille, meg wolitzer, roger rosenblatt, writing

Chautauquans listen to Roger Rosenblatt and Retired Bishop John Shelby Spong exchange views of grief and absence during an hour-long discussion held in the Hall of Philosophy Monday afternoon. Photo by Lauren Rock.

Rosenblatt and Spong discuss grief, ‘Kayak Morning’

June 27, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

At 4 p.m. Monday afternoon, writer Roger Rosenblatt and retired Bishop John Shelby Spong gathered in the Hall of Philosophy to discuss Rosenblatt’s new book, Kayak Morning: Reflections on Love, Grief, and Small Boats.

His second book on grief, Kayak Morning chronicles Rosenblatt’s effort to navigate his emotions after losing his daughter, Amy. Two and a half years after her death, Rosenblatt took up kayaking, finding a man alone in a boat to be an apt metaphor for his experience.

Sherra Babcock, director of the Department of Education, introduced Rosenblatt and Spong and intermittently read excerpts from Rosenblatt’s book, followed by questions about grief, writing and loss.

Religion

discussion, Featured, grief, john shelby spong, kayak morning, lauren rock, leah harrison, religion, roger rosenblatt

Rereading Montaigne’s last essays

June 27, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Two months after the al-Qaida attacks on the World Trade Center, Michael Dirda, editor of The Washington Post’s “Book World,” wrote to ask a number of writers, including me, to write about our favorite “comfort” books — ones we returned to in times of stress, “if only for the balm of the familiar and beloved.” I was glad to accept the invitation, not least because of that word “balm.” In the wake of the devastation, I had gone back to Michel de Montaigne’s Essays; the contrast they offered, I noted in my journal, had felt like “balm for the soul.”

Lecturer Guest Columns

9/11, Guest Column, horace, michel de montaigne, of experience, of physiognomy, ralph waldo emerson, roger rosenblatt, sissela bok, virginia wolf

The torturous, wonderful life of the fiction writer

June 27, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

There are a few things I’d like to say about writing fiction, a subject I’ve been thinking obsessively about for as long as I can remember. I’ve been asked to keep this to under a thousand words, and I promise to do so. My essay will be like one of those abridged classic novels––those versions that children sometimes read: “All happy families are alike. But Anna Karenina’s family was different. They had some problems. Look out, Anna, here comes a train! The end.”

Lecturer Guest Columns

fiction writing, Guest Column, meg wolitzer, morning lecture, roger rosenblatt, sleepwalking

Morning worship: ‘You are free, and that is good news’

June 27, 2012 by The Chautauquan Daily 0 Comments

Jones began his sermon with the quote from Leonard Cohen he used on Monday and then quoted Pete Seeger. His title was “Lost in the Kingdom of ‘Whatever’: the Seduction of Pleasing Ourselves.” His scripture texts were Isaiah 49:13-16a, I Corinthians 4:1-5 and Matthew 6:24-34.

“I want to question the assumptions of people who think they are liberal and tolerant,” Jones said. “Archbishop Robert Runcie said that the church is like a pool — all the splashing takes place at the shallow end. Where do we find our hope? In intimacy with God. Isaiah said it was inscribed on God’s hand. Paul said we are in service to the mysteries of God, and Matthew described hope as total trust.

Religion

Alan Jones, beethoven, erik kolbell, Jared Jacobsen, Joan Brown Campbell, leanoard cohen, lost in the kingdom of whatever, maple and vine, Mary Lee Talbot, pete seeger, robert runcie, roger rosenblatt, shirley thomas, the seduction of pleasing ourselves

Andrews, Hamilton discuss importance of hope in children’s literature

Collins shares thoughts on shift in methods of writing poetry

Renowned poet Collins joins Rosenblatt, presents for CLSC today

Wolitzer discusses women in writing, humor advice

Rosenblatt and Spong discuss grief, ‘Kayak Morning’

Rereading Montaigne’s last essays

The torturous, wonderful life of the fiction writer

Morning worship: ‘You are free, and that is good news’

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