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Attention Novelists: I Will Read Any And Every Novel That You Write

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

 

So it's about a dude, and uh...

I don’t know if I believe that this is possible. I mean how do you even start this thing?

This November, a group of us are taking part in National NovelWriting Month. It’s a hands-on writing adventure where everyday people all around the world bash out a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. No judges or entry fees. Just a whole lot of fun.

If you’re participating in Nanowrimo and want to write with others, meet at Spa (downstairs in Case) on Saturdays at 3 pm.

This will be a very informal meeting spot/time where/when people can write together, chat and encourage each other.

 

In the spirit of community-building, SU.com will be underwriting one lucky would-be novelist with cups of the delicious and nutritious Green Mountain Coffee to help them on their journey – email Editor@SkidmoreUnofficial.com to apply. Terms and conditions may apply.

Since I didn’t get wind of this until today (Student Announcements are the most wretched attempts at effective communication to ever cloud my inbox), I will accept entries until December 3rd.* Maybe you’ll get a review! Please indicate whether the novel will be written in Kerouac or non-Kerouac form (for novelists that straddle the line, please indicate the percentage of time spent inebriated).

*If you get above 25,000 words, you’re a hero and saint and I’ll read that, too. What the hell.

Lecture: Cultural Legacies of the Industrial City

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Carlo Rotella will be on campus this Tuesday giving a lecture entitled “The Rust Belt Canon: Cultural Legacies of the Industrial City” at 6pm in Davis. Rotella, an English professor and Director of the American Studies Dept. at Boston College, is academically decorated and has written extensively on the American industrial city.

Rotella’s lecture will draw upon music, literature, and film to show how the industrial city survives in American culture. Long after the era when manufacturing was of primary importance in determining theform and function of great American cities, echoes and byproducts of that era still circulate in both explicit and subsurface ways in our culture, carrying powerful charges of meaning rooted in industrial-era conceptions of work, play, gender, race, and other matters of import.

Local News: Guy Who Did Reading Making Rest of Class Look Bad

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

BOLTON HALL—Reports have surfaced that a student in a 200-level English class made several salient and insightful comments during a recent class meeting, effectively ruining it for everyone else.

The dickhead in question, one Alex Thornton, began his demonstration of overwhelming intelligence by remarking that in the third chapter of the assigned reading, the author was making the case that “it is not just the powerful who are to be feared, but also the weak and frustrated,” or something equally obnoxious.

“Who does that asshole think he is?” said classmate Natalie Alba. “Speaking in complete sentences, directly quoting passages from the book… Is he trying to make me look stupid?”

The smarmy little know-it-all went on to link the reading that had been assigned for that class period to the over-arching theme of the course, indicating that he had not only done the current reading but all of the preceding ones as well.

“Somebody needs to put a sock in that kid’s mouth,” said classmate Andrew Brickman. “It’s pretty simple. If nobody talks in class then everybody gets an A. Learn how to be a team player for once in your life.”

Thornton continued to reveal himself to be a pretentious, overachieving piece of shit by commenting offhandedly that he had “read ahead,” as the twenty-four pages that had been assigned for the class period clearly had not been enough to occupy his enormous brain.

“What the fuck?” said the class’ instructor, Professor Dana Rathbone. “Why is this kid trying to act like I know what he’s talking about? You think I have time to read this crap? I have a life, you know.”

Steven Stern Fiction Reading

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
Prof. Stern

Prof. Stern

Tonight (4/1) in Davis Auditorium The English Department presents a fiction reading by Skidmore faculty member Steve Stern.

Stern has been awarded the National Jewish Book Award, a Pushcart Writer’s Choice Award and an O. Henry Prize.  His fourth novel, The Frozen Rabbi, is scheduled for publication by Algonquin Books.  His previous novel, The Angel of Forgetfulness (Viking, 2006) was hailed in the Washington Post as “touching, funny and dizzying as well as delicate in its virtuosity.”

It’s the (NY)Times for Millhauser

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

For those of you who didn’t get to read the Sunday New York Times because you were a) in Montreal, b) don’t know how to read, or c) just didn’t wake up until Monday, you missed out on a great author/book review. Skidmore’s most renowned short story author Steven Millhauser had one of his essays, “The Ambition of the Short Story,” and a biography featured in Sunday’s edition. If you don’t have Millhauser as your Fiction Writing professor, or aren’t familiar with his work, you may recognize him as the writer of the story from which the movie, “The Illusionist,” was based. You may also be impressed to know that he is the recipient of the ’97 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel Martin Dressler.

All things considered, Skidmore has more to offer than cold weather and a spot on the Princeton Review’s “Reefer Madness” list. Millhauser is not teaching any courses this semester, but keep your eye’s out next semester when he may be offering a class on how to write well and be really cool.