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.’ ”
