Lannan Foundation is a family foundation dedicated to cultural freedom, diversity and creativity through projects which support exceptional contemporary artists and writers, as well as inspired Native activists in rural indigenous communities. The Foundation recognizes the profound and often unquantifiable value of the creative process and is willing to take risks and make substantial investments in ambitious and experimental thinking.
Lydia Davis has been called “an American virtuoso of the short story form” (Salon.com) and “one of the quiet giants of American fiction” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). She has published seven collections including Sketches for a Life of Wassily (1981), Almost No Memory (2001), Samuel Johnson is Indignant (2002), Varieties of Disturbance (2007), and The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis (2009), as well as a novel, End of the Story. She was born in 1947 and after graduating from Barnard worked ...
Lydia Davis has been called “an American virtuoso of the short story form” (Salon.com) and “one of the quiet giants of American fiction” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). She has published seven collections including Sketches for a Life of Wassily (1981), Almost No Memory (2001), Samuel Johnson is Indignant (2002), Varieties of Disturbance (2007), and The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis (2009), as well as a novel, End of the Story. She was born in 1947 and after graduating from Barnard worked ...
W. S. Merwin, poet, translator, and environmental activist, has become one of the most widely read poets in America, with a career spanning five decades. The son of a Presbyterian minister, for whom he began writing hymns at the age of five, Merwin went to Europe as a young man and developed a love of languages that led to work as a literary translator. He currently holds the position of U.S. Poet Laureate. In this episode, W.S. Merwin read from his work, then joined in conversation with Micha...
W. S. Merwin, poet, translator, and environmental activist, has become one of the most widely read poets in America, with a career spanning five decades. The son of a Presbyterian minister, for whom he began writing hymns at the age of five, Merwin went to Europe as a young man and developed a love of languages that led to work as a literary translator. He currently holds the position of U.S. Poet Laureate. In this episode, W.S. Merwin was introduced by Michael Silverblatt, then read from his ...
Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at The Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. She is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. She is a writer, analyst, and long-time activist on Middle East and UN issues. In 2001 she helped found and remains on the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign to End Israeli Occupation.
Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at The Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. She is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. She is a writer, analyst, and long-time activist on Middle East and UN issues. In 2001 she helped found and remains on the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign to End Israeli Occupation.
Ann Beattie is a short story writer and novelist who, after numerous earlier rejections from The New Yorker, had a story accepted by the magazine in 1974. Two more acceptances followed that year, five the next and regularly from then on to the extent that, as Judith Shulevitz says in the New York Times Book Review, Beattie “becomes so intimately associated with the magazine that people begin to talk of a New Yorker school of short fiction.” Beattie’s most recent collection, The New Yorker Stor...
Ann Beattie is a short story writer and novelist who, after numerous earlier rejections from The New Yorker, had a story accepted by the magazine in 1974. Two more acceptances followed that year, five the next and regularly from then on to the extent that, as Judith Shulevitz says in the New York Times Book Review, Beattie “becomes so intimately associated with the magazine that people begin to talk of a New Yorker school of short fiction.” Beattie’s most recent collection, The New Yorker Stor...
Chris Williams is a long-time environmental activist based in New York City. He is professor of physics and chemistry at Pace University and chair of the science department at Packer Collegiate Institute. Williams is also a frequent contributor to the International Socialist Review (ISR), and The Indypendent, an online newspaper that looks at news and culture through a critical lens, exploring how systems of power—economic, political and social—affects the lives of people locally and globally....
Chris Williams is a long-time environmental activist based in New York City. He is professor of physics and chemistry at Pace University and chair of the science department at Packer Collegiate Institute. Williams is also a frequent contributor to the International Socialist Review (ISR), and The Indypendent, an online newspaper that looks at news and culture through a critical lens, exploring how systems of power—economic, political and social—affects the lives of people locally and globally....