Tag Archives: santa fe

Wallace Shawn with Sarah Knopp, 13 August 2017 – Video

Recorded at the Lannan Garden Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on August 13, 2017.

Wallace Shawn, playwright, actor, screenwriter, and essayist has said, “I don’t know about you, but I only have one life, and I don’t want to spend it in a sewer of injustice.” Best known for his roles in My Dinner with André and as Vizzini in The Princess Bride, Shawn also has had an illustrious career in theater, both as an actor and writer. His plays include Grasses of a Thousand Colors, The Fever, and The Designated Mourner, described by The Times (London) as “…highly unconventional, much concerned with matters of politics, culture and human significance.”

Shawn has written on subjects such as war, money, sex, and aesthetics. His newest book-length essay, Night Thoughts (Haymarket Books 2017) is an examination of how justice-minded people might use the tools of civilization against its excesses.  In his 2006 book, Essays, he says, “somehow poetry and the search for a more just order on earth are not contradictory, and rational thought and dreams are not contradictory, and there may be something necessary as well as ridiculous in the odd activities of racing back and forth on the bridge between reality and the world of dreams.”

This was a private In Pursuit of Cultural Freedom event.

In this episode, Wallace Shawn read from his works and joined Sarah Knopp in conversation.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there.

Wallace Shawn with Sarah Knopp, 13 August 2017 – Audio

Recorded at the Lannan Garden Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on August 13, 2017.

Wallace Shawn

Wallace Shawn, playwright, actor, screenwriter, and essayist has said, “I don’t know about you, but I only have one life, and I don’t want to spend it in a sewer of injustice.” Best known for his roles in My Dinner with André and as Vizzini in The Princess Bride, Shawn also has had an illustrious career in theater, both as an actor and writer. His plays include Grasses of a Thousand Colors, The Fever, and The Designated Mourner, described by The Times (London) as “…highly unconventional, much concerned with matters of politics, culture and human significance.”

Shawn has written on subjects such as war, money, sex, and aesthetics. His newest book-length essay, Night Thoughts (Haymarket Books 2017) is an examination of how justice-minded people might use the tools of civilization against its excesses.  In his 2006 book, Essays, he says, “somehow poetry and the search for a more just order on earth are not contradictory, and rational thought and dreams are not contradictory, and there may be something necessary as well as ridiculous in the odd activities of racing back and forth on the bridge between reality and the world of dreams.”

This was a private In Pursuit of Cultural Freedom event.

In this episode, Wallace Shawn read from his works and joined Sarah Knopp in conversation.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also watch the video recording of this event there.

Viet Thanh Nguyen with Maxine Hong Kingston, Conversation, 29 March 2017 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on March 29, 2017.

Viet Thanh Nguyen‘s debut novel is The Sympathizer, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is a spy novel set during and just after the war in Vietnam, told in the form of a forced confession by a spy for the communist-held North. The New York Times said of the book, “The great achievement of The Sympathizer is that it gives the Vietnamese a voice and demands that we pay attention. Until now, it’s been largely a one-sided conversation.” Nguyen’s other books are Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. His honors include the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction from the American Library Association, the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction, a Gold Medal in First Fiction from the California Book Awards, and the Asian/Pacific American Literature Award from the Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association. He is the Aerol Arnold Professor of English and an associate professor of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Nguyen is currently at work on a short story collection, forthcoming from Grove Press.

This was a Readings and Conversations event.

In this episode, Viet Thanh Nguyen joined Maxine Hong Kingston in conversation. You can find the companion reading here.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there. Photos from this event are available on Flickr.

Viet Thanh Nguyen with Maxine Hong Kingston, Reading, 29 March 2017 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on March 29, 2017.

Viet Thanh Nguyen‘s debut novel is The Sympathizer, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is a spy novel set during and just after the war in Vietnam, told in the form of a forced confession by a spy for the communist-held North. The New York Times said of the book, “The great achievement of The Sympathizer is that it gives the Vietnamese a voice and demands that we pay attention. Until now, it’s been largely a one-sided conversation.” Nguyen’s other books are Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. His honors include the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction from the American Library Association, the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction, a Gold Medal in First Fiction from the California Book Awards, and the Asian/Pacific American Literature Award from the Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association. He is the Aerol Arnold Professor of English and an associate professor of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Nguyen is currently at work on a short story collection, forthcoming from Grove Press.

This was a Readings and Conversations event.

In this episode, Viet Thanh Nguyen was introduced by Maxine Hong Kingston, then read from his work. You can find the companion conversation here.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there. Photos from this event are available on Flickr.

Viet Thanh Nguyen with Maxine Hong Kingston, 29 March 2017 – Audio

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on March 29, 2017.

Viet Thanh Nguyen with Maxine Hong Kingston

Viet Thanh Nguyen‘s debut novel is The Sympathizer, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is a spy novel set during and just after the war in Vietnam, told in the form of a forced confession by a spy for the communist-held North. The New York Times said of the book, “The great achievement of The Sympathizer is that it gives the Vietnamese a voice and demands that we pay attention. Until now, it’s been largely a one-sided conversation.” Nguyen’s other books are Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. His honors include the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction from the American Library Association, the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction, a Gold Medal in First Fiction from the California Book Awards, and the Asian/Pacific American Literature Award from the Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association. He is the Aerol Arnold Professor of English and an associate professor of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Nguyen is currently at work on a short story collection, forthcoming from Grove Press.

This was a Readings and Conversations event.

In this episode, Viet Thanh Nguyen, introduced by Maxine Hong Kingston, read from his work then joined Ms. Kingston in conversation.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also watch the video recordings of this event there. Photos from this event are available on Flickr.

Eileen Myles with Dan Chiasson, Conversation, 15 February 2017 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on February 15, 2017.

Eileen Myles is the author of more than a dozen volumes of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including Snowflake/different streets, Sorry, Tree, Chelsea Girls, Not Me, Skies, Cool for You, The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art, and Inferno: A Poet’s Novel, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and coeditor of The New Fuck You/Adventures in Lesbian Reading. Her autobiographical novel Chelsea Girls, originally published in 1994 and reissued in 2015, brings together snapshot-like memories from her 1960s Catholic upbringing with an alcoholic father, her difficult teen years, her committed embrace of lesbianism, and her life as a poet in 1970s New York, which she describes as “a glowing cord of drunkenness and sex.” Myles’s book I Must Be Living Twice: New and Selected Poems 1975-2014, was described by John Ashbery as being “like a gasp of fresh air in the turbulent urban environment she writes from.” Myles has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Warhol/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant, and the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. She contributes to a wide number of publications, including ArtForum, Bookforum, Parkett, and The Believer. Myles lives in New York and Marfa, Texas, and is a professor emeritus at the University of California San Diego.

This was a Readings and Conversations event.

In this episode, she is joined in Conversation with Dan Chiasson. The companion Reading episode may be found here.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there.

Eileen Myles with Dan Chiasson, Reading, 15 February 2017 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on February 15, 2017.

Eileen Myles is the author of more than a dozen volumes of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including Snowflake/different streets, Sorry, Tree, Chelsea Girls, Not Me, Skies, Cool for You, The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art, and Inferno: A Poet’s Novel, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and coeditor of The New Fuck You/Adventures in Lesbian Reading. Her autobiographical novel Chelsea Girls, originally published in 1994 and reissued in 2015, brings together snapshot-like memories from her 1960s Catholic upbringing with an alcoholic father, her difficult teen years, her committed embrace of lesbianism, and her life as a poet in 1970s New York, which she describes as “a glowing cord of drunkenness and sex.” Myles’s book I Must Be Living Twice: New and Selected Poems 1975-2014, was described by John Ashbery as being “like a gasp of fresh air in the turbulent urban environment she writes from.” Myles has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Warhol/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant, and the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. She contributes to a wide number of publications, including ArtForum, Bookforum, Parkett, and The Believer. Myles lives in New York and Marfa, Texas, and is a professor emeritus at the University of California-San Diego.

This was a Readings and Conversations event.

In this episode, she is introduced by Dan Chiasson and then read from her work. The companion Conversation episode may be found here.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there.

Eileen Myles with Dan Chiasson, 15 February 2017 – Audio

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on February 15, 2017.

Eileen Myles with Dan Chiasson

Eileen Myles is the author of more than a dozen volumes of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including Snowflake/different streets, Sorry, Tree, Chelsea Girls, Not Me, Skies, Cool for You, The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art, and Inferno: A Poet’s Novel, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and coeditor of The New Fuck You/Adventures in Lesbian Reading. Her autobiographical novel Chelsea Girls, originally published in 1994 and reissued in 2015, brings together snapshot-like memories from her 1960s Catholic upbringing with an alcoholic father, her difficult teen years, her committed embrace of lesbianism, and her life as a poet in 1970s New York, which she describes as “a glowing cord of drunkenness and sex.” Myles’s book I Must Be Living Twice: New and Selected Poems 1975-2014, was described by John Ashbery as being “like a gasp of fresh air in the turbulent urban environment she writes from.” Myles has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Warhol/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant, and the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. She contributes to a wide number of publications, including ArtForum, Bookforum, Parkett, and The Believer. Myles lives in New York and Marfa, Texas, and is a professor emeritus at the University of California-San Diego.

This was a Readings and Conversations event.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also view the video recordings of this event there.

China Miéville with Jordy Rosenberg, Conversation, 18 January 2017 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on January 18, 2017.

China Miéville is a British American writer whose fiction has been compared to the work of Franz Kafka, Ursula Le Guin, and Philip K. Dick. He is a three-time winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award for The City & The City, Perdido Street Station, and Iron Council. He has won the World Fantasy Award and twice won the British Fantasy Award. National Public Radio describes him thus: “China Miéville is a magician. He’s the Keyser Soze of the New Weird because you never know who he’s going to be. He can do noir, do steampunk, do aliens, and magic caterpillars. He’s a shape-shifter.” Miéville earned a master’s degree and a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics and held a Frank Knox Fellowship at Harvard University. His academic writings have appeared widely, and he has published numerous works of nonfiction, including Between Equal Rights: A Marxist Theory of International Law (2006), a book version of his PhD thesis. In 2015 he released the short story collection Three Moments of an Explosion, and the following year he published the novellas The Last Days of New Paris and This Census-Taker. He lives and works in London and is a founding editor of the journal Salvage.

This was a Readings and Conversations event.

In this episode, he is joined in conversation with Jordy Rosenberg. The companion Reading episode may be found here.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there.

Additional photos of this event are available on Flickr.

China Miéville with Jordy Rosenberg, Reading, 18 January 2017 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on January 18, 2017.

China Miéville is a British American writer whose fiction has been compared to the work of Franz Kafka, Ursula Le Guin, and Philip K. Dick. He is a three-time winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award for The City & The City, Perdido Street Station, and Iron Council. He has won the World Fantasy Award and twice won the British Fantasy Award. National Public Radio describes him thus: “China Miéville is a magician. He’s the Keyser Soze of the New Weird because you never know who he’s going to be. He can do noir, do steampunk, do aliens, and magic caterpillars. He’s a shape-shifter.” Miéville earned a master’s degree and a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics and held a Frank Knox Fellowship at Harvard University. His academic writings have appeared widely, and he has published numerous works of nonfiction, including Between Equal Rights: A Marxist Theory of International Law (2006), a book version of his PhD thesis. In 2015 he released the short story collection Three Moments of an Explosion, and the following year he published the novellas The Last Days of New Paris and This Census-Taker. He lives and works in London and is a founding editor of the journal Salvage.

This was a Readings and Conversations event.

In this episode, he is introduced by Jordy Rosenberg and then read from his work. The companion Conversation episode may be found here.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there.

Additional photos of this event are available on Flickr.