#americanliterature

Teju Cole is rapidly becoming a new literary sensation in America. His novel Open City – which won the 2012 Pen/Hemingway Award and the New York City Book Award – is unlike anything you’ve ever read.

The narrator, Julius, is a Nigerian psychiatry student who lives in Manhattan and likes to walk in the city. As he does, he has encounters. Most are small. He watches children playing in a park. He discovers that the woman next door died recently, and is quietly devastated, though he hardly knew her.

The novel’s blended texture reminds you of something: real life. You get a sense of this man and this city, but also of how we construct ourselves. The Seattle Times called it “Magnificent and shattering. A remarkably resonant feat of prose.”

Dianne and Jennie are joined by not one, not two, but seven special guests on this episode to talk about Washington Irving, his life and his writings. Our guests are professor Tracy Hoffman who teaches Early American Literature at Baylor University and her  students who are specifically studying Washington Irving this semester. We learn about Washington Irving's early life, the tragic loss of his fiance, his love of history and travel, and one of the most poignant moments in his life when he met the man he was named for... George Washington. Join us for this discussion of the Ordinary Extraordinary man who wrote "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and inspired this year's Beyond the Grave event and led Jennie on a very recent trip to Sleepy Hollow, New York to visit his grave.

To learn about the Washington Irving Society, visit their website  at:
https://washingtonirvingsociety.org/

Jump aboard the Pequod and going us for a seafaring adventure through Herman Melville's life, featuring special guest, Professor Jamie Jones. This episode is as unique as a white whale; you certainly won't want to miss it!