Literature: Related Content
Faculty member in literature Benjamin Anastas reviews Elisha Cooper's memoir Falling: A Daughter, a Father, and a Journey Back, an account of the author's daughter's struggle with cancer, for The New York Times.
The class is called Literary Bennington and so is the blog. Both take the canon of Bennington writers—from recent Pulitzer Prize winner Donna Tartt ’86 to Mann Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai ’93 to MacArthur “Genius” Jonathan Lethem ’86 and best-selling author Bret Easton Ellis ’86, as well as the scores of faculty members who laid the literary ground for those who came after: Bernard Malamud, Kenneth Burke, Stanley Edgar Hyman (and his wife, novelist Shirley Jackson), Edward Hoagland, and Lucy Grealy among others—as their subject. The blog, of course, draws more than just the Bennington crowd. Led by faculty member Benjamin Anastas, students publish in-depth interviews with Bennington authors and journalists, and share archival reviews of visiting poets from the school’s student paper and recaps of current literary Bennington controversies among other pieces. It is, at once, a look back and forward and literarybennington.tumblr.com is inviting to the unfolding investigation all of what makes a Bennington writer, and what makes Bennington such a hotbed for writing talent. Below is just one of the many interviews students have conducted, this one with author and journalist Summer Brennan ’01 whose recently released book is featured on page 8, and who was interviewed by An Nguyen ’18.
Rosie Schaap ’94 writes inThe New York Times Magazine about taking part in a photo shoot with Muhammad Ali as a child, and the profound memory of her father connected to that photograph.
Marguerite Feitlowitz pens an essay in Words Without Borders about teaching in translation.
The Governor’s Institutes of Vermont has selected Bennington as home to its newest Institute. The Young Writers Institute at Bennington College, to be held June 19-25 in conjunction with the Bennington Masters of Fine Art in writing, will host 20-25 writers of high school age who will hone their craft, develop critical and collaborative skills, and be inspired by writers teaching at one of the country’s most prestigious low-residency MFA programs.
Bennington Review, a national biannual print journal housed at Bennington College, recently relaunched thirty years after its last publication. The inaugural issue features work by award-winning writers, including recipients of the Pulitzer Prize and the Whiting Writers’ Award, as well as National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim fellows.
Summer Brennan '01 won NYU's second annual Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award. Brennan's first book was The Oyster War: The True Story of a Small Farm, Big Politics, and the Future of Wilderness in America. She has written for New York Magazine, Scientific American, Pacific Standard, McSweeneys, The Millions, The Rumpus, and others.
Bret Easton Ellis '86 recently saw the Broadway musical adaptation of his novel “American Psycho."
Arlene Heyman '63 spoke with Fresh Air with Terry Gross about her recent collection of short stories,"Scary Old Sex."
Poet Anaïs Duplan '14 spoke with PBS NewsHour about about his work delving into the history of Mary Bowser, a Civil War spy.
Brooke Allen published a review of Jane Mendelsohn’s Burning Down the House in the New York Times.
A new book of short stories by Arlene Heyman ’63, Scary Old Sex, has received warm praise since its publication early in 2016.
Summer Brennan '01 published an article, "The Invisible Black Man on a Prospect Park Statue" in New York Magazine.
Alexander Chee's latest novel, The Queen of the Night, is being greeted with enthusiastic praise on the heels of its February 2 release. Chee is a faculty member in the MFA in Writing program at Bennington College.
The Wall Street Journal profiles Ann Goldstein '71, who translated works by Elena Ferrante, Jhumpa Lahiri and Primo Levi, and has become a rare celebrity among translators.
Faculty member Brooke Allen's biography of Benazir Bhutto, Favored Daughter, is hailed by Kirkus as "a compelling look at Bhutto’s tumultuous life and Pakistan’s roiling history," while the New York Times describes her contributions to Yours in Haste and Adoration: Selected Letters of Terry Southern, as "excellent and often droll."
The Times Higher Education supplement reviewed Judith Butler's Notes Towards a Performative Theory of Assembly on December 10. According to the review, Butler's mediations on recent mass protests around the world make her work "Everything a book about our planet in the 21st century should be."
Donna Tartt ’86 and Bret Easton Ellis ’86 were included USA Today's must-read list of 10 novels by college-aged writers.
Bruna Dantas Lobato '15 writes about the Juan Goytisolo's 1970 novel in verse, Count Julian, in The Millions, and about a new translation of Ferreira Gullar's Dirty Poem in Asymptote Journal.
Read the poem in the Asymptote Journal.
"Strange Days” by MFA in Writing Director Sven Birkerts and "Vision" by Tiffany Briere MFA '11 were included in The Best American Essays 2015. “The Siege at Whale Cay,” by Assistant Director Megan Mayhew Bergman MFA ’10, was included in The Best American Short Stories 2015.
On October 2015, students in a course taught by faculty member Benjamin Anastas launched a blog tracing Bennington’s outsized impact on the world of literature and asking what accounts for it. Literary Bennington features author interviews, short pieces of journalism and reviews, and coverage of literary events on campus.
The Oyster War: The True Story of a Small Farm, Big Politics, and the Future of Wilderness in America, the debut book by Summer Brennan ’01, has been widely reviewed since its publication in August 2015.
Safiya Sinclair '10 has won the Boston Review's 2015 Poetry Contest. In introducing the winner, Cathy Park Hong writes "Sinclair collages a sensual lexicon, creating speech acts that are racialized assemblages. Her language is distinctive, assured, and a marvel to read."
A new book by Sven Birkerts, director of the MFA in Writing Program at Bennington College, is receiving warm attention. Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age, published by Grey Wolf Press, which focuses on the effect of digital culture on our ability to engage with our world, and the fate of writing in such a context, has been reviewed in the Chronicle for Higher Education, New Republic, and the New York Times Book Review.
Safiya Sinclair '10 has been awarded the 2015 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, given by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, for her manuscript, Cannibal. Sinclair is currently pursuing a PhD in literature and creative writing at the University of Southern California, where she is a Dornsife Doctoral Fellow.
Prashansa Taneja '16 has a review of Shirley Jackson's Let Me Tell You in The Millions, an online magazine offering coverage on books, arts, and culture.
Alan Cheuse, the novelist, teacher and longtime literary commentator for NPR, has died at the age of 75.