Writing can spark the imagination, take you to far away places, and even bring about social change. In this collection, writers speak about their craft and read from selected works.
Barry Scott Wimpfheimer specializes in the Talmud and other Rabbinic Literature. His work focuses on the Babylonian Talmud as a work of law and literature. Part scripture and part commentary, it is written in a hybrid of Hebrew and Aramaic and is an unlikely bestseller. The Talmud has remained in print for centuries and is more popular today than ever. Barry Scott Wimpfheimer discusses his book, The Talmud, A Biography, which tells the remarkable story of this ancient book and explains why it has endured for almost two millennia. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 35805]
Similarities between Veep and The West Wing, the perils of drawing TV plot lines from real political events, and the connection between the speed metal genre and today’s news cycle all arise in this conversation between writer/executive producer David Mandel, writer Eli Attie, and Carsey-Wolf Director Patrice Petro about Veep and The West Wing. In this video, Attie and Mandel share their admiration for one another’s work, and discuss the changing television landscape. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 35771]
The narrative engine of Hill Street Blues, lessons in brevity from writing for advertising, and structural differences between Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU arise in this conversation between executive producer/writer Dick Wolf and Carsey-Wolf Center director Patrice Petro. In this video, Wolf describes his first experiences in a TV writing room and the foundations of the record-breaking run of Law & Order: SVU. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 35772]
An internationally celebrated American novelist, short story writer, poet, and activist, Walker’s work has been translated into more than two dozen languages, and her books have sold more than fifteen million copies. She wrote The Color Purple, for which she won the National Book Award for hardcover fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Walker’s collected work includes poetry, novels, short fiction, essays, critical essays, and children’s stories. She was the recipient of a Rosenthal Foundation award and an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters award for In Love and Trouble. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Show ID: 35143]
In her new book, Ecopiety, Sarah McFarland Taylor offers an absorbing examination of the intersections of environmental sensibilities, contemporary expressions of piety and devotion, and American popular culture. Ecopiety evidences the important "work" taking place as mediated popular culture plays an integral role in framing contemporary American environmental moral and ethical sensibilities. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Show ID: 35620]
Pico Iyer was named “arguably the world’s greatest living travel writer,” by Outside, and is the author of over a dozen books and countless essays. The New Yorker called Iyer an “intellectual and spiritual adventurer.” Iyer explores these two intertwined spheres—the inner and the outer—in his writings and in three recent TED Talks, which have racked up some eight million views. Iyer is the author of two novels and ten works of nonfiction, including such perennial favorites as Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto, and The Global Soul. His best-selling 2008 book, The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, was drawn from decades of talks and travels with the Tibetan leader. Iyer's newest book, Autumn Light, out in April 2019, is a far-reaching meditation on impermanence, mortality, and grief that draws extensively on his more than 30 years of living in Japan. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Show ID: 35142]
Sonia Nazario is an award-winning journalist whose stories have tackled some of this country’s most intractable problems — hunger, drug addiction, immigration — and have won some of the most prestigious journalism and book awards. She is best known for "Enrique's Journey," her story of a Honduran boy’s struggle to find his mother in the U.S. Published as a series in the Los Angeles Times, "Enrique's Journey" won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2003. It was turned into a book by Random House and became a national bestseller. Her recent humanitarian efforts to get lawyers for unaccompanied migrant children led to her selection as the 2015 Don and Arvonne Fraser Human Rights Award recipient by the Advocates for Human Rights. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Show ID: 35141]
Writer/Producer David Mandel talked with Pollock Theater Director Matt Ryan about the challenges and successes involved in breaking the mold of Seinfeld and transporting the sitcom to an alternate universe. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 35729]
Writer/Producer David Mandel talked with Pollock Theater Director Matt Ryan about the challenges and successes involved in breaking the mold of Seinfeld and transporting the sitcom to an alternate universe. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 35729]
Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is a writer and Clinical Psychologist from Tel Aviv University. In her talk, she delves into the world of her newest novel, The Liar. Written with propulsive energy, dark humor, and deep insight, The Liar reveals the far-reaching consequences of even our smallest choices, and explores the hidden corners of human nature to reveal the liar, and the truth-teller, in all of us. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Show ID: 35471]
What does it mean to be a Jewish woman in America? Pamela Nadell, American University, talks about her book that looks at the history of Jewish women from colonial times to today. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Show ID: 35472]
This lecture by South African writer, playwright and academic Jane Taylor considers Ludwig Wittgenstein’s paper, “On Certainty” in which the philosopher engages with the taken-for-granted in everyday thought. Taylor notes, “In our contemporary context of the precarious, on one hand, and the political vehemence of conviction, on the other, it seems timely to pay attention to the faltering and tentative mode of regard and thought of one of the twentieth century’s most enigmatic thinkers.” Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 35149]
As an increasingly polarized America fights over the legacy of racism, Susan Neiman, author of the contemporary philosophical classic Evil in Modern Thought, asks what we can learn from the Germans about confronting the evils of the past. In the wake of white nationalist attacks, the ongoing debate over reparations, and the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments and the contested memories they evoke, Susan Neiman’s Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings. She combines philosophical reflection, personal stories, and interviews with both Americans and Germans who are grappling with the evils of their own national histories. Series: "Writers" [Show ID: 35015]
UCSB Script to Screen interviewed this year's Emmy-nominated writers before the 2019 Sublime Primetime panel discussion at the Writers Guild Theater in Los Angeles. Series: "Writers" [Humanities] [Show ID: 35180]
UCSB Script to Screen interviewed this year's Emmy-nominated writers before the 2019 Sublime Primetime panel discussion at the Writers Guild Theater in Los Angeles. Series: "Writers" [Humanities] [Show ID: 35180]
In "Bad Rabbi and Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press" Eddy Portnoy mines century-old Yiddish newspapers to expose the seamy underbelly of pre-WWII New York and Warsaw, the two major centers of Yiddish culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34806]
Rachel Kadish is an American writer of fiction and non-fiction, author of several novels and a novella. Her fiction work has won the National Jewish Book Award and the Julia Ward Howe Prize, the John Gardner Fiction Prize, and the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award. She discusses her latest book, "The Weight of Ink," a work of historical fiction set in London of the 1660s and of the early twenty-first century. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34680]
The former editor of Poetry Magazine, Christian Wiman is both a poet and an essayist who teaches Literature and Religion at Yale Divinity School. In an interview he discussed what he hopes readers might take from his work: I have no illusions about adding to sophisticated theological thinking. But I think there are a ton of people out there who are what you might call unbelieving believers, people whose consciousness is completely modern and yet who have this strong spiritual hunger in them. I would like to say something helpful to those people. His most recent book is He Held Radical Light: The Art of Faith, the Faith of Art, released in 2018. Other books include My Bright Abyss, Ambition and Survival, Every Riven Thing, Hammer is the Prayer, Hard Night, and The Long Home. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33947]
E.J. Dionne writes about politics in a twice-weekly column for the Washington Post, and is a government professor at Georgetown University, a visiting professor at Harvard University, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. He is a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio. Before joining The Post in 1990 as a political reporter, Dionne spent 14 years at The New York Times, where he covered politics and reported from Albany, Washington, Paris, Rome and Beirut. His coverage of the Vatican was described by the Los Angeles Times as the best in two decades. In 2014-2015, Dionne was the vice president of the American Political Science Association. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 33946]
More recently known for her Black Panther and Wakanda Forever Marvel Comics, Nnedi Okorafor is an international award-winning novelist of African-based science fiction, fantasy and magical realism for both children and adults. Born in the United States to two Nigerian immigrant parents, Nnedi is known for weaving African culture into creative evocative settings and memorable characters. In a profile of Nnedi’s work titled, “Weapons of Mass Creation,” The New York Times called Nnedi’s imagination “stunning.” Game of Thrones author, George R.R. Martin and HBO are currently developing a show based on her World Fantasy Award Winning novel, Who Fears Death. Ta-Nehisi Coates has passed the torch on writing the Black Panther comics to Nnedi, and the women warriors from the mega-hit movie were such fan favorites that Marvel has tasked Nnedi to create a new spinoff comic, Wakanda Forever. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33945]
In The Lion Seeker and The Mandela Plot, two powerful novels full of raw, vividly-drawn characters, Kenneth Bonert has explored the unique and fascinating story of the Jews of South Africa. In this talk he explains why he became a novelist and the inspiration that he drew from growing up in Johannesburg. He talks about the history of his family and of the Jewish community in South Africa and reflect on his literary goals such as capturing the authentic voices of his characters and examining their moral and political struggles. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34564]
Author, Tova Mirvis reads from her memoir, The Book of Separation, which describes a woman who leaves her Orthodox Jewish faith and her marriage and sets out to navigate the terrifying, liberating terrain of a newly mapless world. She is the author of three novels and her essays have appeared in various anthologies and newspapers. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34065]
San Diego-raised novelist and UC San Diego alumnus, Luis Alberto Urrea ‘77 is the featured speaker at the UC San Diego Library annual gala. Urrea, a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist, has written about the border and has knitted together stories in a way that makes them familiar and impactful for everyone. Series: "Writers" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 33668]
Abigail Pogrebin is the author of the recently published book, My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew. Hear how she spent 12 months researching and observing every holiday in the Jewish calendar. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33750]
Eighteen years ago, Israeli author Ruby Namdar arrived in New York, not knowing that he had just taken the first step of an incredible literary, cultural and personal journey. He discusses the novel The Ruined House, winner of the 2014 Sapir Prize, Israel’s most prestigious literary award, which was an artistic response to Namdar’s wonderful experience of discovering America, American Jewry, and American Jewish literature. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33734]
Steve Clemons of the Atlantic talks with MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo. Her bestseller, “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving for a better life in a Mumbai slum. Based on three years of uncompromising reporting, she puts a human face on issues of inequality. Series: "Helen Edison Lecture Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 33266]
Cosmologist and author of "Losing the Nobel Prize" Brian Keating tells the inside story of BICEP2’s mesmerizing discovery and the scientific drama that ensued in this interview with science fiction author David Brin. Keating describes a journey of revelation and discovery, bringing to life the highly competitive, take-no-prisoners, publish-or-perish world of modern science. Along the way, he provocatively argues that the Nobel Prize, instead of advancing scientific progress, may actually hamper it, encouraging speed and greed while punishing collaboration and bold innovation. In a thoughtful reappraisal of the wishes of Alfred Nobel, Keating offers practical solutions for reforming the prize, providing a vision of a scientific future in which cosmologists may, finally, be able to see all the way back to the very beginning. Series: "Writers" [Humanities] [Science] [Show ID: 33369]
Following his presentation to the 2018 Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University, Deepak Chopra, MD talks with host Dean Nelson about breakthroughs in integrative medicine and understanding the mind-body connections that lead to wellness. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Health and Medicine] [Humanities] [Show ID: 32880]
Deepak Chopra, MD, a leading pioneer in integrative medicine, shares insights from his new book, “The Healing Self,” on how to protect your immune system by managing stress and reducing inflammation – two key factors for lifelong wellness. Chopra is presented by the 2018 Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 33478]
Author and legendary athlete Kareem Abdul-Jabbar offers sage advice on writing. Abdul-Jabbar has written several best-selling books, along with some basketball on the side." Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33605]
The stars of the documentary, “I’ll Push You,” tell a remarkable story of sacrifice, spiritual awakening and transformation as Patrick Gray and his wheelchair-bound best friend Justin Skeesuck recount the emotional tolls of their 500-mile trek on the Camino de Santiago in Spain in this conversation with Dean Nelson, founder of the Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32693]
Author and journalist Krista Tippett, host of the NPR program “On Being,” describes wisdom as the “imprint one’s life has on others.” She shares this and other insights from her latest book, “Becoming Wise,” in a compelling interview with Dean Nelson, founder of the Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32691]
Novelist and filmmaker David Bezmozgis speaks about his 2014 novel The Betrayers, an intense look at morality and the human conscience, that won the National Jewish Book Award. The book is about a famous Russian Jewish dissident who, after the fall of the Soviet Union, meets the man who denounced him. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33367]
Author and legendary athlete Kareem Abdul-Jabbar highlights remarkable African-American contributions to American society. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Education] [Show ID: 33606]
Author Jane Smiley captivates the audience as she attributes the success of her Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, “A Thousand Acres” to the lessons she learned from “Uncle Bill,” as in William Shakespeare and his play, King Lear. In this interview with veteran journalist Dean Nelson, Smiley describes her compulsion to write and urges other writers to follow their own passions and not be too hard on themselves, as most early drafts are terrible. “Everyone has a story to tell if they want to tell it,” she says, while offering advice on how to push through the barriers that often limit aspiring novelists. Smiley is presented by the 2018 Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32690]
Writer/director/producer Jordan Peele joins UCSB’s Matt Ryan for a Script-to-Screen discussion of Get Out (2017), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Peele explains how the tone of the film was influenced by his background in comedy, the work of Ira Levin (The Stepford Wives, Rosemary’s Baby), and the desire to subvert the tropes of African American characters in the horror genre, as well how he created “the sunken place” through conceptualizing racism in a new way for the screen, and bringing it to life through stand-out performances from the actors. Series: "Carsey-Wolf Center" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33376]
Author and legendary athlete Kareem Abdul-Jabbar describes the cultural and historical influences that led him to write several best-selling books, “along with some basketball on the side,” in this introspective and wide-ranging conversation with veteran journalist Dean Nelson. Abdul-Jabbar shares stories from his most recent book, “Coach Wooden and Me,” about his 50-year friendship with the late UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, in this event presented by the 2018 Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32692]
Luis Urrea is a prolific writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph. Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, Urrea is the critically acclaimed, best-selling author of 16 books. He talks with Steven Schick about his life and work, and their collaboration on a new version of Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat" with texts from Urrea's writings. Series: "Helen Edison Lecture Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 33265]
This evening is inspired by the short postcard stories that magazine editor George Hay encouraged in the 1970’s. He dared such authors as Arthur C. Clarke to send sci-fi stories that easily fit onto a postcard. In that spirit, Geisel Library invited writers to submit fantasy or science fiction pieces of no more than 250 words, to be read aloud. Series: "Writers" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33454]
Author and Boston University law professor Pnina Lahav discusses her forthcoming biography, "Golda Meir: Through the Gender Lens." She explores the first and only woman prime minister of Israel, and her complex relationship with her role as a female leader in a man’s world. During the course of her legal career, Pnina Lahav has published nearly 50 journal articles and three books, including the critically acclaimed 'Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century'. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 33257]
Author, Tova Mirvis, discusses her book, The Book of Separation, which describes a woman who leaves her Orthodox Jewish faith and her marriage and sets out to navigate the terrifying, liberating terrain of a newly mapless world. She is the author of three novels and her essays have appeared in various anthologies and newspapers. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 33053]
Mary Karr, one of the most celebrated memoirists, poets and essayists of her generation, talks about her craft and the revelations found along the way. Her most recent publication, The Art of Memoir, features excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers' experiences. She is the recipient of prizes from PEN and Best American Poetry, and she has won Pushcart Prizes both for poetry and essays. Series: "Voices" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32831]
"Short Tales from the Mothership" celebrates an elegant genre by presenting condensed stories from fellow futurists, time-travelers, inventors, artists, and writers. This evening is inspired by the short postcard stories that magazine editor George Hay encouraged in the 1970’s. He dared such authors as Arthur C. Clarke to send sci-fi stories that easily fit onto a postcard. In that spirit, Geisel Library invited writers to submit fantasy or science fiction pieces of no more than 250 words, to be read aloud. Series: "Writers" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32844]
Celebrated author, literature champion, and bookstore owner Ann Patchett electrifies the audience as she describes her evolving relationships with various books, ranging from classics by Leo Tolstoy and John Updike to more contemporary works by Min Jin Lee (“Pachinko”), Matthew Desmond (“Evicted”) and Ta-Nehisi Coates (”Between the World and Me”), among others. Patchett reads both for pleasure and for business, as the co-owner and buyer for Parnassus Books in Nashville. Why would a best-selling author bother with opening a book store in 2011, when all of the others in her hometown had closed? Because, she says, she couldn’t bear to live in a city without one so she and a partner opened their own! And, as she tells here, Parnassus Books has been a huge success. Patchett is the featured speaker of the 2017 Dinner in the Library event at UC San Diego. Series: "Writers" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32700]
Mary Karr, one of the most celebrated memoirists, poets and essayists of her generation, talks about her process of writing a memoir. Karr is a best-selling memoirist, poet, and essayist. Her most recent publication, The Art of Memoir, features excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers' experiences. She is the recipient of prizes from PEN and Best American Poetry, and she has won Pushcart Prizes both for poetry and essays. Series: "Voices" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32832]
Hailed as one of Israel's most innovative and extraordinary writers, Etgar Keret is internationally acclaimed for his short stories. Keret has written short stories, graphic novels, and scripts for television and film. He has made the short story into a literary gem that reflects the surge of interest in the short story in Israel and in Modern Hebrew since the 1990s. Series: "Taubman Symposia in Jewish Studies" [Humanities] [Show ID: 32455]
Yusef Komunyakaa, an internationally renowned poet who won the Pulitzer Prize for “Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems," reads and discusses his work while writer-in-residence at UC Santa Barbara. Series: "Voices" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 32148]
The International Tracing Service, one of the world’s largest Holocaust-related archival repositories, holds millions of documents detailing the many forms of persecution that transpired during the Nazi era and their continuing repercussions. Based on her recently published book, "Nazi Persecution and Postwar Repercussions: The International Tracing Service Archive and Holocaust Research," Suzanne Brown-Fleming provides new insights into human decision-making in genocidal settings, the factors that drive it, and its far-reaching consequences. Brown-Fleming is director of the Visiting Scholar Programs of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. She is presented here by the Holocaust Living History Workshop at UC San Diego. Series: "Writers" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 31541]
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder reveals his reporting strengths as he describes how he earned the trust of the people he has featured in books such as "Mountains Beyond Mountains," "House," "A Truck Full of Money," "Old Friends," and "Strength in What Remains." Kidder shares the joys and doubts of a career in writing with veteran journalist and host Dean Nelson, founder and director of the Writer's Symposium By The Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 31161]
Author and anti-racist activist Tim Wise speaks about the importance of being a white ally to communities of color, and how we can all work together to create a healthier community on campuses and in the world beyond. Wise spoke as part of UCSB’s Resilient Love in a Time of Hate series. Series: "Voices" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 31995]
Barbara Boxer, the longtime US Senator from California and author of "The Art of Tough: Fearlessly Facing Politics and Life," speaks on her biggest battles in Congress, including support for AIDS research, voting rights, equal rights, reproductive rights, clean air and water, parental leave and her opposition to the Iraq war, and reminds her audience that all of these are at risk given the results of the 2016 election. Boxer delivers the inaugural speech of the Barbara Boxer Lecture Series, presented by the Institute of Governmental Studies and the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. Series: "Institute of Governmental Studies, UC Berkeley (IGS)" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 32092]
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