The Community Library is observing Independence Day on, Monday, July 5. We will re-open Tuesday at 10:00 a.m.
The Community Library
2021 Ernest Hemingway Seminar: Hemingway in Africa
Register to Attend:
The 2021 Ernest Hemingway Seminar, initially scheduled for Fall 2020, will celebrate two short stories and Hemingway’s time in Africa. We’ll read “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” both published in 1936 following Ernest and Pauline’s three-month safari in 1933. Both stories can be read online by clicking their titles above, or in multiple print editions, including The Complete Short Stories: The Finca Vigía Edition.
For three days we will explore these texts and the history surrounding them. In addition to a dynamic array of lectures and opportunities for discussion, we will enjoy films, good food, and fellowship, all of which make this Hemingway seminar unique.
This year’s Seminar will be in a hybrid format, with both in-person and virtual attendance options. The in-person seminar will be limited to 100 attendees and costs $75. The virtual-only Seminar costs $25 and offers access to all presentations, panels, and films. Separate discussion groups will be hosted for virtual-only attendees via Zoom.
Seminar check-in will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 9. Thursday evening’s opening keynote by Dr. Suzanne del Gizzo, Professor of English at Chestnut Hill College and editor of The Hemingway Review, will introduce us to Hemingway’s time in Africa.
Throughout the day on Friday we’ll dive into “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” with panels, film, discussion, and a special theatrical presentation.
Saturday will conclude with a focus on “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” a discussion on the ethics of safari, our closing keynote from Dr. Andrew Farah, neuroscientist and author of Hemingway’s Brain, and an evening reception.
A full Seminar agenda will be posted soon.
Contact Martha Williams, Programs and Education Manager for information: mwilliams@comlib.org
Past Ernest Hemingway Seminars:
2020 – Virtual “Out of the Box” Seminar
2019 – For Whom the Bell Tolls
2018 – A Farewell to Arms: Hemingway and WWI
2017 – Isn’t it pretty to think so?: Hemingway and The Sun Also Rises
2014 – The Old Man and the Sea
2013 – Hemingway and the Modern
2010 – Second Annual Ernest Hemingway Symposium
2009 – Inaugural Ernest Hemingway Symposium
2021 Ernest Hemingway Seminar: Hemingway in Africa
Register to Attend:
The 2021 Ernest Hemingway Seminar, initially scheduled for Fall 2020, will celebrate two short stories and Hemingway’s time in Africa. We’ll read “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” both published in 1936 following Ernest and Pauline’s three-month safari in 1933. Both stories can be read online by clicking their titles above, or in multiple print editions, including The Complete Short Stories: The Finca Vigía Edition.
For three days we will explore these texts and the history surrounding them. In addition to a dynamic array of lectures and opportunities for discussion, we will enjoy films, good food, and fellowship, all of which make this Hemingway seminar unique.
This year’s Seminar will be in a hybrid format, with both in-person and virtual attendance options. The in-person seminar will be limited to 100 attendees and costs $75. The virtual-only Seminar costs $25 and offers access to all presentations, panels, and films. Separate discussion groups will be hosted for virtual-only attendees via Zoom.
Seminar check-in will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 9. Thursday evening’s opening keynote by Dr. Suzanne del Gizzo, Professor of English at Chestnut Hill College and editor of The Hemingway Review, will introduce us to Hemingway’s time in Africa.
Throughout the day on Friday we’ll dive into “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” with panels, film, discussion, and a special theatrical presentation.
Saturday will conclude with a focus on “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” a discussion on the ethics of safari, our closing keynote from Dr. Andrew Farah, neuroscientist and author of Hemingway’s Brain, and an evening reception.
A full Seminar agenda will be posted soon.
Contact Martha Williams, Programs and Education Manager for information: mwilliams@comlib.org
Past Ernest Hemingway Seminars:
2020 – Virtual “Out of the Box” Seminar
2019 – For Whom the Bell Tolls
2018 – A Farewell to Arms: Hemingway and WWI
2017 – Isn’t it pretty to think so?: Hemingway and The Sun Also Rises
2014 – The Old Man and the Sea
2013 – Hemingway and the Modern
2010 – Second Annual Ernest Hemingway Symposium
2009 – Inaugural Ernest Hemingway Symposium
OUTDOORS: “The Poetry of Family Photos” A Writing Workshop with Richard Blanco
This two-hour workshop, led by award-winning poet Richard Blanco, will take a deep dive into the golden rule of writing poetry—“show don’t tell”—by contemplating the rich sensory details of family photographs. We’ll tap into their powerful stories by practicing “fever writing” or “automatic writing,” which we will share in class as jumping-off points for generating new poems.
Each participant will be asked bring two or three family photos (print preferred) that hold some personal mystique, imaginative interest, and emotional complexity. Open to writers of all levels and ages, as well as poetry enthusiasts.
Register above or by emailing Martha Williams, programs and education manager, at mwilliams@comlib.org.
Richard Blanco is an award-winning poet and was The Community Library’s 2020 Hemingway Distinguished Lecturer. Blanco was the fifth presidential inaugural poet in U.S. history—at the time the youngest, first Latino, immigrant, and gay person to serve in such a role. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami, the negotiation of cultural identity and place characterize his body of work. He is the author of the poetry collections Looking for the Gulf Motel, Directions to the Beach of the Dead, and City of a Hundred Fires; the poetry chapbooks Matters of the Sea, One Today, and Boston Strong; a children’s book of his inaugural poem, “One Today,” illustrated by Dav Pilkey; and Boundaries, a collaboration with photographer Jacob Hessler. His latest book of poems, How to Love a Country (Beacon Press, 2019), both interrogates the American narrative, past and present, and celebrates the still unkept promise of its ideals. He has also authored the memoirs The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood and For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey. Blanco’s many honors include the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press, the PEN/Beyond Margins Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, a Lambda Literary Award, and two Maine Literary Awards. He has been a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow and received honorary doctorates from Macalester College, Colby College, and the University of Rhode Island, and the Academy of American Poets named him its first Education Ambassador in 2015.
OUTDOORS: “There’s No Place Like Home” A Writing Workshop with Katharine Smyth, Hemingway Writer-In-Residence
On the grounds of the Hemingway House in Ketchum, Idaho—one of several houses that left an indelible stamp upon the life and work of Ernest Hemingway—the writer Katharine Smyth will lead ten students in exploring the idea of home: where is it, what is it, why does it matter, and how do we conjure it on the page?
In preparation, students will write and share with the group approximately three double-spaced pages about a home that is important to them—this could be a house or an apartment, a place, an idea, a person, a work of art; whatever comes to mind. They will also read the submissions of their fellow workshoppers, making informal notes to share with the group, and the first chapter of Katharine’s memoir, All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf (a PDF will be provided.) These literary offerings will be the jumping-off point for a wide-ranging conversation about both the craft of writing and the vital role that our homes play in our lives.
Timing: 3 hours with a 15-minute break.
Register above or by emailing Martha Williams, programs and education manager, at mwilliams@comlib.org.
Katharine Smyth is a writer based in Brooklyn, NY. After graduating from Brown University, she worked at The Paris Review and taught at Columbia University, where she received her MFA in nonfiction writing. Her essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The New York Times, Elle, The Point, Literary Hub, and Poets & Writers, among other publications. Her first book, All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf, was published by Crown in 2019 and named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.
