Books& Writing

 

Featured Event: 
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Road

Evening Program 
Tues., Jan. 12 at 6:45 PM
Buy Tickets>>

Chauncer

 

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What do you choose when you settle in with a good book (or e-reader)? 
The Smithsonian Associates offers a wonderful array of book-focused events. Take a look at these upcoming programs on Authors, Books, and Writing.

Featured Event: Did you ever wish you could join Chaucer's irreverent, bawdy and fun-loving travelers on their way to Canterbury? Written during the time of the Hundred Year’s War, Chaucer created a collection of tales framed as a storytelling contest among the pilgrims as they made their way to the Shrine of Saint Thomas Becket.

At the time of the writing, the nation was in turmoil, a situation that fuels the book’s subtext in which Chaucer’s subtle satire and inventive wordplay create a critical portrait of English society and the church. The writer emerges as a poet who both appreciates good fun and creatively examines issues of social difference, religious controversy, and the conflicting claims of this world and the next.

Paul Strohm puts us back on the road to Canterbury and in the midst of this pilgrim society as he discusses the stories that sped their journey—which are still entertaining and relevant today—and the flare-ups and disputes that hindered their progress. Buy tickets>>


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 Upcoming Book & Writing Programs at the Smithsonian:

 

 Stacy Schiff

 

 

 

Stacy Schiff on the Salem Witch Trials
Evening Program with Book Signing - HOT TICKET!
Tues., Nov. 3 at 6:45 PM
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff places the trials that condemned 19 colonists to death in their historical and social contexts, and finds a contemporary resonance in some of the issues reflected in that dark and unsettled time. Buy tickets>>

 

Novel in a Month

 

 

 

 

Write a Novel in a Month
All-Day Program - LIMITED AVAILABILITY!
Sat., Nov. 7 at 9:30 AM
What better way to mark November as National Novel Writing Month than producing your own in 30 days? Kathryn Johnson of The Writer’s Center is ready to get you prepped for the literary challenge. Buy tickets>>

 

 Jane Austen

 

 

 

 

Understanding Jane Austen:
A Daytime Discussion

Session 3 of 4-Session Daytime Program
Tues., Nov. 10 at 10 AM
Featured Book:
EmmaA comedy of manners in which Emma Woodhouse schemes to make matrimonial matches among her friends, only to discover she is woefully unfit for the job.
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Book

 

 

 

 

National Book Award-Winning Novelists
Session 3 of 4-Session Evening Course

Mon., Nov. 16 at 6:45 PM
Featured Book: Louise Erdrich, Round House (2012)—A bittersweet coming-of-age story of a young boy’s gradual understanding of the ties that bind family together in the wake of a brutal, racist attack on his mother. Buy tickets>>

 

Great Books

 

 

 

 

Reading the Great Books of Science
All-Day Program

Sat., Dec. 5 at 9:30 AM
In this all-day seminar, explore the works of the great scientist-writers—from Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle, through 20th-century classics in biology, physics, and cosmology—which over the centuries moved scientific development forward. 
Buy tickets>>

 

Jane Austen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Understanding Jane Austen:
A Daytime Discussion

Session 4 of 4-Session Daytime Program
Tues., Dec. 8 at 10 AM
Featured Book:
PersuasionIn Austen’s last completed novel before her death at 41, Anne Elliot, now age 27, is persuaded by well-meaning, if misled, friends to end her romance with Captain Frederick Wentworth. When he returns eight years later, should she reverse her decision and follow her heart?
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 Down the Rabbit Hole

 

 

 

 

 

Down the Rabbit Hole:
Celebrating
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Evening Program with Reception
Tues., Dec. 8 at 6:45 PM
Lewis Carroll’s beloved tale of how clever Alice met a Mad Hatter, an anxious rabbit, a blue caterpillar, and other strange characters has been delighting readers for 150 years. Join us in a toast—and don’t be late for this very important date! 
Buy tickets>>

 

Book award winner

 

 

 

 

National Book Award-Winning Novelists
Session 4 of 4-Session Evening Course

Mon., Dec. 14 at 6:45 PM
Featured Book: Phil Klay, Redeployment (2014)—Twelve stories and 12 viewpoints give us the opportunity to look into both the ongoing trauma of the Iraq war and the true human cost of war, abroad and at home. Buy tickets>>

 

Feynman

 

 

 

 

 

Richard P. Feynman: Quoting a Genius
Evening Program with Book Signing

Mon., Dec. 14 at 6:45 PM
Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Richard P. Feynman was as famous for the wit and wisdom of his popular lectures and writings as for his fundamental contributions to science. Maria Feynman joins NPR’s Joe Palca in a conversation about her new book that collects the most memorable of her father’s observations. 
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Irish

 

 

 

 

 

Great Irish Dramatists
3-Session Evening Course

Begins Thurs., Jan. 7 at 6:45 PM - NEW!
Ireland, whose myth, history, and culture are among the world’s richest, is a country particularly noted for its playwrights. From the wit of Wilde and Shaw to the work of Martin McDonagh and Conor McPherson, Irish-born literature specialist Christopher Griffin surveys some of its outstanding dramatists in an engaging course. Buy tickets>>

 

Chauncer

 

 

 

 

Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Road
Evening Program -
FEATURED EVENT!

Tues., Jan. 12 at 6:45 PM
The satirical, earthy, and funny tales with which the Canterbury pilgrims entertained themselves still have plenty to tell us about human nature and life in 14th-century England. Join Chaucer specialist Paul Strohm as he revisits literature’s most famous road trip. Buy tickets>>

 

Word

 

 

 

 

 

Word Biographies:
Origins and Meanings in Everyday Language

All-Day Program -
NEW!

Sat., Jan. 30 at 9:30 AM
We use words to weave stories, but did you ever wonder about the stories behind words? Linguist Linda Coleman explores how English words are constructed, the roots of our vocabulary, how meaning is created, and how our institutions, including dictionaries, affect our view of words. Buy tickets>>

 

Hemingway

 

 

 

 

Hemingway’s Paris
Evening Program with Book Signing and Tastings

Thurs., Feb. 4 at 6:45 PM - NEW!
Robert Wheeler, a professor of English at Southern New Hampshire University, and Hemingway enthusiast and cocktail connoisseur Philip Greene team up to capture the spirit (and spirits) of the city the writer loved the most. Santé, Papa!
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Midwinter

 

 

 

 

 

A Midwinter’s Day at the Folger
All-Day Tour with Performance

Sat., Feb. 13 at 10 AM - NEW!
Banish the chill of the season by basking in a day of Shakespearian magic at the Folger Shakespeare Library. The distinctive Greco-Deco building holds plenty of treasures, and special tours and behind-the-scenes sessions spotlight many of them. A matinee of A Midsummer Night’s Dream captures you in its spell. Buy tickets>>

 

 

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