Blacksmith House Poetry Series

BLACKSMITH HOUSE POETRY SERIES: FALL / WINTER 2022-23

All readings will take place in-person on Mondays at 8pm. Admission is $3. Visit ccae.org/blacksmithpoetry for more information.

Founded in 1973, the awardwinning Blacksmith House Poetry Series features established and emerging writers of poetry and fiction. The series is named after the Blacksmith House at 56 Brattle Street, site of the village smithy and spreading chestnut tree of Longfellow’s 1839 poem “The Village Blacksmith.”

Andrea Cohen

Director

Ron Spaletta & Daniel Grover

Assistants to the Director

Gail Mazur

Founding Director

October 17

Martha Collins reads from her new book, Casualty Reports, with Carl Phillips, whose new poetry collection is Then the War: And Selected Poems 2007-2020

October 24

Tracy K. Smith reads from her new collection, Such Color: New and Selected Poems

October 31

Jennifer Haigh reads from her new novel, Mercy Street, with Jayne Anne Phillips, whose most recent books are Quiet Dell and Lark and Termite

November 7

Stuart Dischell reads from his new collection, The Lookout Man, with David Rivard, whose latest book is Some of You Will Know

November 14

Nick Flynn, author of I Will Destroy You, reads with Andrea Cohen, whose most recent collection is Everything

November 28

Dewitt Henry, author of the poetry collection Restless for Words, reads with Anna V.Q. Ross, whose new book is Flutter, Kick

December 5

Emerging Writers: New Voices

Hannah Aizenman, J.D. Debris, and Angela Voras-Hills, whose debut collection is Louder Birds

The Blacksmith House Poetry Series is funded in part by Cambridge Arts Council and Massachusetts Cultural Council. We appreciate our donors’ support of Cambridge Center for Adult Education and local cultural programming.

PROUST AND HIS USE OF INTERIOR DESIGN IN LITERATURE

Jamie Robertson | Author/Editor In this course, we will take a closer look at the intersection of interior design and literature through Marcel Proust’s rich description of furniture, lighting, colors, and textures. Perhaps more than any other great author Proust understood the significance of interiors in our everyday lives. Join us as we analyze these interiors and their contribution to Proust’s memorable characters and great storytelling.

COURSE CODE: DSIG Sec. 01: 5 Wednesdays, 10am-11am. Begins Jan. 11 | $135

HAMMETT AND CHANDLER:

REALISTS WITH GUNS

Allan Converse | Ph.D. in Comparative History, Brandeis University Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler are the masters of American tough-guy mystery fiction. Both are complex men whose work remains important and controversial. This class will examine their biographies and works against their social and historical backgrounds. We will also look at pulp publishing, film versions, and the leading inheritors of the Hammett-Chandler tradition, Ross Macdonald and Chester Himes.

COURSE CODE: DHRM Sec. 01: 8 Wednesdays, 3:30-5:30pm. Begins Jan. 11 | $290

A DICKENS SEMINAR: LITTLE DORRIT

Susan Glassman | Ph.D., English, University of Rhode Island Little Dorrit attacks the injustices of the contemporary English legal system, the government, society, and particularly the institution of debtors’ prison, where debtors were imprisoned, unable to work, and incarcerated until they had repaid their debts. Dickens is critical of the impotent bureaucracy of the British government, in the form of the fictional “Circumlocution Office.” He also satirizes the stratification of society that results from the British class system. Little Dorrit, like many of Charles Dickens’s novels, has an extensive cast of characters, each of whom makes an important contribution to the plot. Despite the number of characters in the novel, each one can be easily distinguished and remembered due to Dickens’s brilliant characterization techniques.

COURSE CODE: DORR Sec. 01: 8 Tuesdays, 10:30am-11:45am. Begins Jan. 10 | $260 Sec. 02: 8 Tuesdays, 2-3:15pm. Begins Jan. 10 | $260

RETELLING PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: JANE AUSTEN’S RELEVANCE TODAY

Lori Ayotte | Writer; Educator; Jane Austen Scholar When Jane Austen published Pride and Prejudice in 1813, she could not have imagined the hundreds of retellings that would emerge two centuries later. Students will spend three weeks examining the characters, settings, themes, and contemporary relevance of Pride and Prejudice; they then will spend an additional three weeks studying Austen spin offs. This book group will explore why Austen’s popularity endures and whether the spinoffs shape or misshape our understanding of Austen’s original work.

COURSE CODE: JANE Sec. 01: 4 Thursdays, 6:30-7:30pm. Begins Mar. 2 | $120

THOMAS MANN’S THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN

Petra Bittner | Literature Instructor The Magic Mountain, published in 1924, is a complex and rich novel of ideas that elevated Thomas Mann to the highest ranks among the great modern novelists. In this monumental narrative, he uses a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps as a backdrop to the young protagonist’s sexual, historical, and cultural awakening. This eight-week course will focus on the text through close reading and discussion of major literary themes. Please be prepared to read around 100 pages each week. Please obtain Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain; translated by John E. Woods (ISBN 9780679772873) and read parts 1, 2, and 3 for our first meeting.”

COURSE CODE: TMTM Sec. 01: 8 Wednesdays, 2-3:30pm. Begins Feb. 1 | $260

RELIGIONS FOR THE WORLD

Michael Koran | Author of Verse to Better, M.A. University of Chicago How can we connect to divine playful energies in ourselves, our surroundings, and our universe? On this sacred journey, we’ll explore how wisdom from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and indigenous people can help heal all of us. Questions we’ll explore: why “Israel” means “To wrestle with God,” how to tune into Christ Consciousness, how surrendering moves us to dance with all, how yoga connects, how presence may reveal each moment’s humor, how caring for our earth re-births us. We’ll read and discuss The World’s Religions by Huston Smith and The World’s Wisdom by Philip Novak.

COURSE CODE: WREL Sec. 01: 5 Mondays, 7-9pm. Begins Jan. 9 | $175 No class Jan. 16

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