SewaneeLetters.com

In a brilliant collision of the superstars of SOL, James Wood (aka, author of How Fiction Works) will perform as a guest percussionist with John Sullivan’s band Fayaway on July 1 in NYC. Of course, we’ll all be in class, but this news was just too quirky not to share.

John Grammer just sent a link to (nonfiction professor) John Jeremiah Sullivan’s latest piece in GQ…

which achieves what I’d have thought impossible: a thoughtful, funny, sympathetic, even poignant profile of Levi Johnston, the rejected unwed hockey-playing bear-hunting father of Sarah Palin’s grandchild.

Jenn Lewin has kindly offered to lead a once-a-week reading group this summer, to be called “The Bible for Teachers and Students of Literature.” Students interested in participating should just bring a Bible (Jenn suggests the King James version) with them this summer.

Eric Sundquist’s book “King’s Dream: The Legacy of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech” appeared in January. Students from last summer will recall that Professor Sundquist read part of the manuscript of the book when he visited Sewanee. The School and its students are thanked in the “Acknowledgments” of the book.

Jason Kelley sent me a link to (non-fiction professor) John Jeremiah Sullivan’s latest book review in the November 08 Harper’s (subscription required). While searching for a free version of the piece, I found more on Sullivan’s interest in the blues (sort of an interview about a review of the texts which are themselves grappling with the music). All of which makes the blues seem even more intriguing… I mean, you could never get this much mileage out of, say, the new Guns n Roses. Though I would welcome the attempt.

Guess which School of Letters fiction prof is responsible for the most Citations on the road? Check out the LA Times Editorial just published by Ellen Slezak.