Cullman Center Institute for Teachers Past Programs

This workshop explores the intersection of autobiography and history-writing. Critically and thoughtfully reading a range of works that interweave personal experience with history, we will scrutinize each author’s research and method, sources and evidence. We will discern interpretation and argument, ask questions about the problem of memory, consider intention and audience, and evaluate style and voice. During our week together, participants will make their own forays into autobiography and history. Drawing on the resources of the Library, each workshop-member will craft an essay that  READ MORE ›

 

Fiction is artifice. No matter whether we write in the mode of realism, or whether our work stretches the boundaries of the actual, we are engaged in an act of defamiliarization. We want to present the recognizable anew in order that our readers have the opportunity to confront the world around them with a widened awareness of the complexities that inform any given moment, action, or relationship. In this class, we will study the work of selected writers who, through the subtle use of craft (voice, structure, narrative distance, time, and tone), manage to take the known and make it  READ MORE ›

 

Most stories are not a single series of events, even if they look that way at first glance. Embedded in the stories we write are numerous smaller stories–the ones characters tell themselves about the lives they’ve led and the people they’ve known, which combine to give us a fuller sense of characters and their concerns. We will examine memory as a vital tool for character development, and we will look at the ways that memory can influence nearly every other element of a work of fiction. We will spend time with oral history collections in an effort to get a better understanding of how  READ MORE ›

 

Recent events in American politics have revealed a political landscape far more fractured and polarized than many had previously believed it to be. But in truth, contemporary political divides have their roots deep in the past. This course will look at grass-roots social movements in American history of both the left and the right, with an eye toward the way that they shaped American politics in the past and the legacies that they still have today. We will talk about American socialism in the early twentieth century; the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s; the Communist Party and American fascism  READ MORE ›

 

This course will examine the experience of enslavement by focusing on the lives of enslaved women. The bodies of black women created the legal foundation for racial slavery in Anglo-America. The womb was the key site in the reproduction of property and the making of human commodities. Sexuality was the heart of power in the relationship of master and slave. Intimacy, sexuality and kinship were disfigured by the extreme violence and dishonor of the institution; and, at the other extreme, the concubines and offspring of slave owners were those most likely to be freed. READ MORE ›

 

In his novel Underworld, Don DeLillo writes of “[t]he shock of other people’s lives. The truth of another life, the blow, the impact . . . The power of an ordinary life. It is a thing you could not invent with banks of computers in a dust-free room.” This from the point of view of a fictional character he had nonetheless invented. It is a commonplace that fiction writers mostly refashion the nonfictional material of their own experience. Yet the freedom to pursue lives not our own, to invent by describing in careful language, draws us powerfully to go with the imagination where we  READ MORE ›

 

In the 16th and 17th centuries, European understanding of natural and human diversity was transformed by travelers’ encounters with new environments and cultures in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. In this seminar, we will examine printed texts, early maps, broadsheets, and paintings to consider how scholars, writers, and ordinary people reimagined their places in an expanding world. Readings will include travelers’ accounts of cannibals, poison trees, and satyrs; essays by Montaigne; excerpts from Andreas Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica; and secondary literature in the histories  READ MORE ›

 

“Reporting” primarily connotes information-gathering – the seeking out of knowledge from sources in the outside world. Yet reporting also involves emotional and sensory apprehensions, including the writer’s relationship to what is unknown when the reporting begins. This workshop will explore ways writers might use these less-understood tools. How could confusion, for example, aid reporting? How does it shape one’s voice in the narrative? Change the story? Participants will consider these questions as well as conventional fact-finding methods as they write their own short nonfiction  READ MORE ›

 

Creative writing classes and writing manuals are full of so many do’s and don’ts that we tend to forget that the essence of literature is hard to define. Rather than offer writing advice or guidelines, this workshop will explore fiction’s uncertain and volatile boundaries through a series of not-totally-weird writing exercises as well as discussions of texts by writers such as Elias Canetti, J. M. Coetzee, Natalia Ginzburg, Nicanor Parra, and Georges Perec. Throughout the week, each participant will work on a short piece that will be discussed by the group at the end of the workshop. READ MORE ›

 

When the 2016 Summer Olympics were awarded to Rio de Janeiro late in 2009, Brazil was enjoying a decade-long economic boom and the country seemed poised for a leap to global power status. But when the games open next August 6, the mood in Rio is sure to be a sour one. Since the end of 2014, Brazil has been mired in the worst corruption scandal in its history, with its political institutions and leaders discredited, and the economy has shifted into reverse and is actually shrinking. What went wrong? And what makes this tropical giant tick? Even with all its problems, Brazil boasts the  READ MORE ›

 

We are accustomed to reading about art forgeries, counterfeit antiquities, pirated pharmaceuticals, even fake racing bikes. Until recently most people assumed that it was not possible to forge rare books, and that any such attempts would be easily detected. Using the New York Public Library’s unrivaled collection of forgeries and facsimiles, we will investigate the surprisingly long and complicated history of techniques and technologies deployed in forging printed books. Along the way, we will consider what forgeries have to tell us about the times in which they occurred, and will conduct a  READ MORE ›

 

Relevant for history as well as English teachers, this seminar will focus on the social world portrayed in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald set his novel at a time of staggering new wealth, staunchly-held prejudices, deep underlying inequalities, and a heady sense of promise. Will the bubble of the 1920s collapse? Will anything ultimately change? READ MORE ›

 

The best literary journalism combines rigorous reporting, fluid writing, and a strong concept. In this workshop we will examine the key building blocks of long-form journalism, with a focus on the particular skills required when writing about events as they are happening (e.g., Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, the Arab Spring). Participants will be given short writing exercises during the day. READ MORE ›

 

In 1692 the Massachusetts Bay Colony executed 14 women, five men, and two dogs for witchcraft. The trial records have disappeared, as have many contemporaneous accounts of that year. We are left with about 950 legal documents, mostly records of preliminary hearings, depositions, complaints, and arrest warrants. These ‘reports’ are highly unreliable. Adolescent and pre-adolescent girls leveled the Salem accusations, and what they said has been conveyed to us by men. In the hearing room, reporters recorded answers but not always the questions that elicited them, and summarized testimony  READ MORE ›

 

The View from the Kitchen with Laura Shapiro This seminar will focus on three culinary icons who span the 20th century: Betty Crocker, Julia Child, and Alice Waters. Their influence can be seen in every corner of America's relationship with food, yet each worked very differently to reach her audience. Betty Crocker, invented by the advertising industry, communicated through the imagination. Julia Child, a powerfully charismatic teacher, communicated through television. And Alice Waters, whom most Americans wouldn't recognize on the street despite her famous name, has communicated through  READ MORE ›

 

This workshop will use “translation” as inspiration for writing our own poems. We’ll think about the space between languages and consider the translated poem not as an “exact copy” of the original, but as a refraction, a riff. We’ll examine fascinating and exciting experiments with poetry and translation, reading poems by Jack Spicer, Alice Oswald, Latasha Nevada Diggs, Christian Hawkey and others. Participants will be given the opportunity to experiment by writing multilingual texts, working with languages they don’t necessarily know. Knowledge of other languages is not  READ MORE ›

 

What separates fiction and poetry? Might a poem contain a short story? One answer to these questions is surely “I don’t know,” but discussing them will lead to a fruitful discussion about creative writing. We will start by exploring poems by Emily Dickinson, Ezra Pound, Nicanor Parra, and others. Each participant will draft in class a short story based on one of those poems. When the group discusses these drafts, we will ask whether anything has been lost in translation. READ MORE ›

 

Reporting on victims is a fraught and troubling process. To what extent does “serving the public interest” justify examining people’s pain and writing about their lives? How does the journalist come to terms with work that, at every step in the process, may have consequences for the subject -- and for the journalist? And what about the perpetrators of abuse and atrocities? Do they deserve the microphone the journalist offers them? We will examine these delicate issues through articles, books, and documentaries about victims in different parts of the world, including El Salvador, Rwanda,  READ MORE ›

 

War and Peace is widely considered one of the greatest achievements in world literature, although Tolstoy himself insisted it was not a novel. Part family romance, part historical epic, part polemic on the nature of history, its sprawling narrative takes place during the events of the French Revolutions and the Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815.) This seminar will consider the book’s historical context as well as its literary qualities. How does the novel help us to understand this momentous era? How does history help us to understand this great novel? Participants will be asked to read and make  READ MORE ›

 

New writers are urged (relentlessly) to "find their voices"-- a frustrating bit of advice if ever there was one. Voice is among the most elusive of terms. What is it, exactly? Of what does it consist? How does one go about developing it? Certainly voice includes style, but that is so unique and organic to each writer that it only further confuses the issue. In this workshop we will dismantle voice into practical elements: narration (point of view), character development, dialogue, and finally, the sentence. To aid in this dismantling, we will examine writing by Julio Cortázar, Edward P.  READ MORE ›

 

The German comedian Karl Valentin famously remarked, “Everything has already been said, but not yet by everyone.” New writers too often imitate or over-reach, as they search for a balance between tradition and a way of writing that is fresh and personal. Finding a “voice,” a distinctive means of expression, is a major achievement, but with each new project, the search begins again. In this workshop, we will consider “voice” in a number of writers – George Saunders, Junot Diaz, Alice Munro, Alberto Bolaño – and explore techniques to help participants find their own. READ MORE ›

 

Backstory has become a dirty word in fiction workshops. At best it's something to be gotten out of the way quickly; at worst it's considered a serious drag on the prose. But this workshop explores backstory as a rich and essential tool. We will examine short fiction by Mavis Gallant, James Salter, and others to see how these writers successfully use memory and the past. Participants will be given brief writing exercises. READ MORE ›

 

El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world. This seminar will explore connections among the following events: El Salvador’s civil war between 1980 and 1992; the wartime exodus of families to California; young boys joining gangs in Los Angeles; U.S. deportation of gang members back to El Salvador; the beginning of violent gang warfare in El Salvador. The seminar will examine photographs, videos, and reportage to explore the causes of this violence and its tragic consequences, particularly for children who fled their native countries last summer seeking haven in the  READ MORE ›

In the opening scene of King Lear, Lear asks his youngest daughter what she would add to her sisters’ professions of love for him. Cordelia responds, “Nothing.” What follows from this seemingly innocent statement is a shocking display of cruelty. Lear’s “dragon,” as he calls it, is unleashed, and Cordelia is banished. Why was Lear so upset? William Hazlitt compared Lear’s state of mind to a “solid promontory pushed from its basis by the force of an earthquake.” This seminar considers the role of natural catastrophe in framing questions about human agency and knowledge. We  READ MORE ›

History is typically studied through texts, yet for much of human history the majority of people could not read or write. Recognizing this effective illiteracy, and spurred by the “image explosion” brought on by technological change in the 20th-21st centuries, historians have begun to turn to visual images and material objects to learn about the past. In this seminar we will explore one of the most image-oriented of all historical periods – medieval Europe – through the lens of its artworks. We’ll look at a range of medieval images and objects, and will discuss how to extract  READ MORE ›

In 1975, the largest city in the United States nearly declared bankruptcy. The financial collapse of New York—the home of Wall Street—raised large political questions. Could its economic problems be fixed? Were its generous public services possible in a recession? Was its postwar liberalism tenable? The fiscal crisis led to budget cuts that affected most of the city’s public institutions and set off a wave of protests. Although protesters sometimes successfully shaped how the cuts happened, they couldn’t resist larger changes as the city became increasingly oriented toward private  READ MORE ›

Why was it that the outbreak of the American Revolution and the creation of British India were simultaneous events involving many of the same people? What happens if we think about American independence not as the pivotal moment in American history but as part of a global imperial struggle involving not just the British Empire but the Spanish and French Empires as well? This seminar considers the Declaration of Independence and other key historical documents from this imperial perspective. READ MORE ›

Elizabeth Bishop was a great poet of memory. She mined her childhood experience in prose, wrote poems from a child’s perspective, and, in retrospective narrative verse, established herself as the Wordsworth of her age. In this seminar, the biographer Megan Marshall and the literary critic Kenneth Gross will combine biographical explication and close reading of texts to explore Bishop’s youth—a period of radical dislocation and loss as well as of self-discovery—and the ways in which Bishop transformed her life into poetry. READ MORE ›

In this workshop, we will examine voice and structure in first-person narratives by Donald Barthelme, Stuart Dybek, Carolyn Ferrell, Janet Frame, Amy Hempel, and Grace Paley. We will consider the difference between the often nostalgic and sometimes unreliable “I” voice that narrates events, and the active, embodied “I” who is a character in the story itself. We'll also see how associative thinking and structural fragmentation affect our understanding of voice and character. Participants will then attempt to write their own nostalgic, fragmented, wild first person narratives. READ MORE ›

The homes and buildings in which we live and work, the parks and places in which we shop and play, and all the roads and byways in between, tell the story of our past. In this seminar we will treat America’s built environments as primary documents that reveal our social history from the 19th century to the present. Among the questions to be considered: How did the 19th century factory influence the design of contemporary kitchens? What does Central Park tell us about America’s evolving notion of “play?” How is the A train connected to segregation? We will read essays by the great  READ MORE ›

In this workshop, we will examine some basic techniques of storytelling. Using a wide range of texts, from folktales to Flannery O’Connor, Poe to Kelly Link, Gabriel García Márquez to Karen Russell, we will explore how the bizarre, the mythical, and the supernatural work in a fictional narrative. Daily writing exercises will help each participant compose a short piece of fiction, which will be discussed at the end of the week in a marathon workshop. READ MORE ›

In this workshop, participants will exercise their observational skills in order to write descriptive nonfiction. To sharpen our senses, we will study examples of great descriptive writing from authors such as Ryszard Kapuściński, John McPhee, Janet Malcolm, Emmanuel Carrère, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Joseph Mitchell, Gitta Sereny, and Elif Batuman. Participants will go out into New York to do their own observing and recording, and then write descriptions of increasing complexity, starting with a single object, moving on to a person, a situation, and finally a scene with multiple  READ MORE ›

THIS IS A WEEK-LONG SEMINAR (JULY 29 - AUGUST 2)

JOHN WRAY, Instructor READ MORE ›

'Finding your voice' is one of the most daunting challenges confronting any aspiring writer, largely because 'voice' is not so much found as invented. A distinctive, articulate, seductive voice is essential to fiction and non-fiction alike, but each novel or short story or essay has a specific voice—or group of voices—that suit and serve it best. Over the course of our week, we'll dip into the works of some of the great virtuosi of voice, such as Virginia 

THIS IS A WEEK-LONG SEMINAR (MONDAY JULY 22 - FRIDAY JULY 26)

SHIMON DOTAN, Instructor READ MORE ›

Representations of the “other” are central to identity. In times of political conflict, our constructs of the “other” become rallying cries. This seminar is designed for teachers interested in contemporary politics, history, filmmaking, and film criticism. We will ask: How do filmmakers fight against or reinforce prevailing representations of an enemy? We will also investigate how the “other” is 

THIS IS A WEEK-LONG SEMINAR (MONDAY JULY 15 - FRIDAY JULY 19)

GARY PANTER, Instructor

This class is designed for beginners, but artists at any skill level are welcome to apply. Our primary focus will be on learning how to draw in a sketchbook. Through simple exercises, we will break down the barrier separating non-drawers from drawers. Each day's draughting will be supplemented with lectures on a variety of topics, such as the history of comics and drawing;  READ MORE ›

This seminar is during spring break

SAЇD SAYRAFIEZADEH, Instructor

How exactly do you take those raw, unwieldy—often embarrassing—personal experiences (also known as your life) and fashion a compelling narrative? By studying the various strategies that established writers such as Tobias Wolff and A. M. Homes have employed in writing memoir, we will explore the genre in relation to traditional storytelling—character, plot, arc, and resolution. And we’ll ask the essential question: does  READ MORE ›

This seminar is during spring break

GARY PANTER, Instructor

Starting a sketchbook can seem intimidating. This workshop will address the activity of regularly drawing in a sketchbook. People at any skill level will benefit from this workshop, but it is aimed at those who don’t draw but would like to. Participants will do easy, satisfying exercises designed for the beginner. Bring in a favorite poem or two — at the end of the workshop you’ll draw illustrations for the poems.

Gary Panter is a painter,  READ MORE ›

 SHIMON DOTAN, Instructor

This seminar, helpful for global history teachers as well as any teacher who uses film in the classroom, looks closely at one of the most influential political films in history. The Battle of Algiers (1966), by Gillo Pontecorvo, recreates the Algerian struggle for independence from the French in the 1950s. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés, and French soldiers resort to torture to break the will of the insurgents. The film is a case study in  READ MORE ›

DÁNIEL MARGÓCSY, Instructor

How did Europeans make sense of the expanding globe in the Age of Discoveries? This seminar explores the impact of the printing revolution on Europeans’ perceptions of America, Africa, and Asia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We will examine how, in the absence of first-hand evidence, Europeans attempted to make sense of the contradictory accounts of travelers. And we will look at early maps, broadsheets, paintings, and printed texts to see how a highly stereotypical  READ MORE ›

JAMES RYERSON, Instructor

This seminar, of interest to economics, social studies, and English teachers, presents a case study of the editing of a feature article in The New York Times Magazine. Before the seminar, participants will read both the first draft and the final version of the article, a profile by Stephen Mihm about the economist, Nouriel Roubini. During the morning seminar, the group will discuss why the piece was assigned, what the reporting challenges were, and how the writer and editor worked  READ MORE ›

THIS IS A WEEK-LONG SEMINAR (MONDAY JULY 30 - FRIDAY AUGUST 3)

RIVKA GALCHEN, Instructor

Shakespeare wrote soliloquies in iambic pentameter; Freud composed some of the 20th century’s best writing in the form of medical case histories; Elvis turned gospel into rock ’n roll; and Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham on a bet that he could write a book using just fifty different words. A narrow passage allows the wind to whistle-- at least sometimes! We’ll read texts by Kobo Abe, Roberto Bolaño, Anthony Burgess, and others,  READ MORE ›

THIS IS A WEEK-LONG SEMINAR (MONDAY JULY 23 - FRIDAY JULY 27) 

LAURA SHAPIRO, Instructor

A wide range of literary genres is open to writers who are deeply curious about food and who find it a peerless– in fact, irresistible – window onto history, experience, and character. This seminar will be held in conjunction with “Lunch Hour: NYC,” a major exhibition of food-related items from the Library’s collections, and will examine the work of such influential culinary storytellers as MFK Fisher, Anthony Bourdain, and Laurie  READ MORE ›

THIS IS A WEEK-LONG SEMINAR (MONDAY JULY 16 - FRIDAY JULY 20)

ADAM SHATZ, Instructor

From the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, New York below 14th Street was home to a thriving -- and increasingly politicized -- black bohemian scene. Black writers, painters, and jazz musicians moved downtown in search of cheaper rents and a more tolerant racial atmosphere, and were soon mixing with their white counterparts in bookshops, taverns, and jazz clubs. By 1965, the scene had imploded, with the assassination of Malcolm X and the rise of black nationalism.  READ MORE ›

BEN KATCHOR, Instructor

Through a series of writing and drawing exercises, we will explore the possibilities of expression that arise when text and image are combined on the page. Participants will discover and amplify, through their writing, the stories suggested by their drawings, and analyze, through their drawing, the descriptive passages in their written texts. No previous drawing experience is necessary, but everyone will be asked to make the attempt.

Ben Katchor’s latest graphic novel is The Cardboard Valise. The  READ MORE ›

EVAN HAEFELI, Instructor

Using the famous case of Henry Hudson’s ‘discovery of New York,’ the seminar will reflect on this crucial moment in American history. We will use primary and secondary sources, both European and indigenous, to build perspectives on this foundational experience and illustrate how interpretations of the past belong to our present.

Evan Haefeli teaches history at Columbia READ MORE ›

DARRYL PINCKNEY, Instructor

The Autobiography of Malcolm X has surprisingly wide appeal as a coming-of-age story, perhaps because of its message of spiritual growth and intellectual change. But Malcolm X also became an icon of militant defiance. How can his book represent such a contradictory legacy? What about this controversial tale continues to fascinate? What would young women find in it? Does it carry the same message for black youth as for white?

An essayist and novelist, Darryl Pinckney is the author of the novel High Cotton and Out  READ MORE ›

SHAMUS KHAN, Instructor

Relevant for history as well as English teachers, this seminar will focus on the social world portrayed in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald set his novel at the end of the Gilded Age, a time of staggering new wealth, staunchly-held prejudices, deep underlying inequalities, and a heady sense of promise. Will the bubble of the 1920s collapse? Will anything ultimately change?

The author of Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School, Shamus Khan teaches sociology at READ MORE ›

ADAM SHATZ, Instructor

As a prominent poet, critic, essayist, playwright, and editor, LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka), bridged the worlds of the Beats, the New York School, and avant-garde jazz, and did more than anyone to define the new black aesthetic. Readings will include several essays and poems as well as Jones’s short play, Dutchman. Seminar participants will also listen to samples of music by jazz artists who were close to Jones, and look at paintings by Bob Thompson, who documented that world  READ MORE ›

CHRIS ADRIAN, Instructor

This workshop will examine the unconventional language used in a number of stories, including short fiction by Donald Barthelme and Judy Budnitz, to create a drama of romantic attachment that resists and overcomes cliché. Participants will also engage in a writing exercise that incorporates some of these elements to produce an affecting piece of writing about love. 

Chris Adrian is the author of three novels – The Great Night, Gob's Grief, and The Children's Hospital –  and a collection of  READ MORE ›

Mary Gaitskill, one of America’s master short story writers, leads a seminar on four brilliant stories: The 5:48 by John Cheever; Vandals by Alice Munro; Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor; and The End of FIRPO in the World by George Saunders. The class will discuss each work's apparent theme, style, and representation of character, and will pay special attention to the ways writers use words to create non-verbal experience through which readers sense the hidden and irrational  READ MORE ›