Delve Readers' Seminars with Literary Arts: Portland Arts and Lectures: A Season of Authors January 30, 2008

Delve offers the opportunity to explore great books with an experienced guide and the company of other dedicated readers. Seminars are lively, in-depth discussions led by local scholars. No previous knowledge of the author or text is required. Each seminar is limited to 20 participants who will complete designated reading in advance and come prepared to discuss the text in an informal, friendly atmosphere.

In this seminar, we will read and discuss select works by each of the authors in this season’s Portland Arts & Lectures series: Orhan Pamuk’s Snow, Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses, Colson Whitehead’s John Henry Days, Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, Mary Oliver’s New and Selected Poems, and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. Our goal will be to deepen our appreciation of these individual authors while also seeing them as examples of accomplishment in various genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, musical theater and the graphic novel. We’ll meet once a month on Wednesday evenings, a week before each author’s scheduled appearance.

Guide: Christopher Zinn received his Ph.D. in English and American literature from New York University. He has taught at Reed College, directed the college’s American Studies program and served as Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Turkey. He was executive director of the Oregon Council for the Humanities from 1997 to 2006.



Seminars cost $150 each. Registration takes place on a first-come, first-served basis at www.literary-arts.org or 503.227.2583, and continues until seminars are full.