Digital tools in the hands of the young “generally serve an anti-intellectual purpose,” Mark Bauerlein told the crowd in a packed lecture room during last week’s Writers Read event at Eastern Mennonite University. Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University, is author of The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future ( ...More
Take a minute and read this book title: The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future (or Don’t Trust Anyone under 30). Chances are those words elicited some kind of emotion. If you’re under 30, you may have just looked up or away from your digital device and rolled your eyes. If you’re over 30, your facial ...More
Chris Bolgiano is a self-described “mildly amusing nature writer” and a retired special collections librarian who resides in Fulks Run, Virginia. These authentic identities – citizen scientist, wide-ranging chronicler, and Appalachian mountain woman – converge in her literary works. From books to essays and nature and ...More
Reprinted with slight edits from the student-produced Weather Vane, Oct. 2, 2014. Written by first-year student Liesl Graber. Lyrical words filled Lehman Auditorium last Wednesday evening, capturing the attention of both poetry fanatics and novices alike at the latest installment of Writer’s Read. Members of the EMU community gathe ...More
Evie Shockley, an award-winning poet who embraces both free-verse and traditional styles of writing, will open up the 2014-15 Writers Read series on Wednesday, September 24, at 8 p.m. in Eastern Mennonite University’s Lehman Auditorium. “Shockley brings excitement as she goes beyond reading to performing her work,” said Michael Medley, chair of language and literatur ...More
Sorayya Khan – a Pakistani-Dutch-American writer who combines cross-cultural sensibilities with lyrical, haunting prose on war and its impact on humanity – is the last Writers Read guest of the year on Thursday, Mar. 13, at 6:30 p.m. in Common Grounds at EMU. Khan is the author of two novels, Noor (2003) and Five Queen’s Road (2009), both with story lines that hig ...More
Jim Minick, author of the award-winning The Blueberry Years, A Memoir of Farm and Family, will be at EMU on Monday, Feb. 10, for two events, culminating in the first Writers Read Author of the semester at 6:30 p.m., in EMU’s Common Grounds Coffeehouse in University Commons. Earlier tha ...More
Jessica Penner, a 2001 Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) alumna, will be the next featured “Writers Read Author,” on Thursday, Nov. 14, at 6:30 p.m., in EMU’s Common Grounds Coffeehouse in University Commons. Penner released her debut novel-in-stories, Shaken in the Water (Fox ...More
Frank X Walker, a multidisciplinary artist and Al Smith Fellowship recipient, will open the 2013-14 “Writers Read Author series,” on Thursday, Sept. 19, at 8:30 p.m., in Eastern Mennonite University’s Lehman Auditorium. As founder of the Affrilachian Poets, Walker is editor of: ...More
Saloma Miller Furlong always liked the way Burlington, Vt., looked in her school history books. So, when she decided to leave her Ohio Amish community at the age of 20, that’s where she headed. When she got there, she felt like a new person. “I got my dream job as a waitress at Pizza Hut,” she said in the PBS documentary “The Amish,” from which ...More
