SewaneeLetters.com

We’ve lined up a lecture by Philip Weinstein from Swarthmore, a brilliant critic of modern fiction, for a talk about Faulkner. Weinstein is the author of two books on Faulkner, most recently Becoming Faulkner.

Later we’ll be hearing from David Hudgins, the screenwriter behind the (very well-written) television show Friday Night Lights, among others. David will be offering what he characterizes as a craft lecture.

On February 17 and 18 are the festivities surrounding the appearance of Donald Hall, 2009 recipient of the Sewanee Review’s Aiken-Taylor award for poetry. Hall, as you may know, is a major and senior figure in American poetry; now in his 80s, he published his first poems at 16, when he was Robert Frost’s student at Bread Loaf.  He’s won most of the major prizes for a poet (and a few unusual ones, like a Caldecott medal for Children’s literature) and was the Poet Laureate of the United States.

At 3:00 p.m. on the 17th, in the Alumni House, Poet Peter Makuck will lecture on the importance and meaning of Hall’s work. The next day, Feb 18 at 4:30 in Convocation Hall, Donald Hall will receive his award and read from his poetry.

Then on March 1, at 4:40, in Gailor Auditorium, Playwright David Roby, next year’s Tennessee Williams Fellow and Writer in Residence at Sewanee, will read from his works. Roby is a very promising younger playwright and an excellent reader of his own works; should be a good show.

April Alvarez forwarded this fantastic meditation on fiction writing by Robert Jackson Bennett. I particularly liked this confession:

I can say that the more I learn about stories, the less I know what they are. The narrative construct is one of our greatest and most mysterious tools, and I often doubt if we wield it as much as it wields us.

April has also promised to send in photos of John Grammer sledding. Stay tuned.

This just in from Melinda Haines:

Available January, 2010:  two story unfurnished house for rent, approx. 2,500 s/f, three bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths. Attached furnished guest quarters with bath and office. On secluded cul-de sac off Virginia Avenue, within walking distance to campus and elementary school. Open floor plan and fireplace, full kitchen with dining area, large decks and screened-in porch overlooking cleared woods and Running Knob Hollow Lake. Easy access to lake for boating, swimming, and fishing. $1500/mo.or make offer. Contact Daniel Thompson at 931-598-0889.