Talking to Grief: Literary Explorations Of Loss
Wednesdays, February 13-March 20, 2019 (six sessions)
6:30-8:30 p.m.
Guide: Lois Leveen, Tuition: $220
Loss is an inevitable part of life, yet the course of grief often surprises and overwhelms us. How can works of literature help us understand grief, whether our own or someone else’s? In this seminar, we’ll delve into poetry, prose memoir, and graphic narrative, as we explore what authors gain from writing about grief, and what we gain from reading about it.
Reading List: “Talking to Grief” (poem) by Denise Levertov; Book of Hours by Kevin Young; Rosalie Lightning by Tom Hart; Nocturne by Helen Humphreys; plus supplementals
For our first meeting on February 13th, we will be reading several poems and a short prose excerpt. The reading will be about twenty pages, and you’ll receive an email a week before the seminar from guide Lois Leveen that includes those readings.
SEMINAR GUIDE:
Lois Leveen is the author of the novels Juliet’s Nurse and The Secrets of Mary Bowser. A Kienle Scholar in Medical Humanities at Penn State University College of Medicine, she has written about intersections of literature, history, and culture for The Atlantic, The Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR.
