PAST SEMINARS


2009: Historical Fiction and the Search for Truth
Pictures, recordings, and more from 2009 are archived on L I T T O R A L.
Video coverage from 2009 is available from C-SPAN.org

John Hersey Memorial Address: Geraldine Brooks (First Session)   |   Barry Unsworth (Second Session)
Chantel Acevedo, Calvin Baker, Russell Banks, Andrea Barrett, Madison Smartt Bell, Geraldine Brooks, Alan Cheuse, Peter Ho Davies, Eric Foner, Elizabeth Gaffney, Francisco Goldman, Allan Gurganus, Ursula Hegi, Samantha Hunt, Jane Kamensky, William Kennedy, Rachel Kushner, Jill Lepore, David Levering Lewis, Thomas Mallon, Megan Marshall, Valerie Martin, Peter Matthiessen, Ivy Meeropol, Michael Meeropol, Anchee Min, Mary Morris, David Nasaw, Sena Jeter Naslund, Patricia O'Toole, Joyce Carol Oates, Marilynne Robinson, John Burnham Schwartz, Barry Unsworth, Gore Vidal, Hilma Wolitzer, John Wray

2008: New Voices
Listen to recordings from this event in our 2008 Audio Archives

John Hersey Memorial Address: Mark Doty (First Session)   |   Lee Smith (Second Session)
Gigi Amateau, Ann Beattie, Judy Blume, Tina Chang, Billy Collins, Trevor Corson, Junot Díaz, Annie Dillard, Mark Doty, Nell Freudenberger, James Gleick, Terrance Hayes, Mary Hays, Silas House, Uzodinma Iweala, Tayari Jones, Janna Levin, Carolyn Mackler, Vestal McIntyre, Daniel Menaker, Bich Minh Nguyen, Manuel Muñoz, Maggie Nelson, Meghan O'Rourke, Hannah Pittard, Connie Regan-Blake, Robert D. Richardson, Patrick Ryan, Timothy Seldes, Brenda Shaughnessy, Porter Shreve, Susan Shreve, Jake Silverstein, Lee Smith, Robert Stone, Michael Thomas, Edmund White, Dara Wier, Hilma Wolitzer, Kevin Young

2007: Wondrous Strange: Mystery, Intrigue, and Psychological Drama
Listen to recordings from this event in our 2007 Audio Archives

Moderators: Rosalind Brackenbury, Mary Morris, Michael Wood
John Hersey Memorial Address: Michael Wood
Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Aimee Bender, Michael Cunningham, Tananarive Due, Jeffrey Eugenides, Siri Hustvedt, Wally Lamb, Ian McEwan, Joyce Carol Oates, Steve Stern, Amy Tan, James Tate, Mary Kay Zuravleff

2006: The Literature of Adventure, Travel, and Discovery
Listen to recordings from this event in our 2006 Audio Archives

Moderators: Patricia Hampl and Michael Shapiro
John Hersey Memorial Address: Pico Iyer
Rosalind Brackenberry, Tim Cahill, Billy Collins, Hal Crowther, Hanns Ebensten, Gretel Ehrlich, Linda Greenlaw, Eddy L. Harris, Tony Horwitz, Pico Iyer, Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen, Ana Menéndez, Michael Mewshaw, Lawrence Millman, Mary Morris, Dervla Murphy, Kira Salak, Robert Stone, Patrick Symmes, Kate Wheeler

2005: Humor
Listen to recordings from this event in our 2005 Audio Archives

(First Session)
Master of Ceremonies: Michael Rosen
John Hersey Memorial Address: Billy Collins
Dave Barry, Roy Blount, Jr., Blanche McCrary Boyd, Christopher Buckley, Billy Collins, Christopher Durang, Clyde Edgerton, Barbara Ehrenreich, Percival Everett, Carl Hiaasen, Alison Lurie, Lorrie Moore, Cathleen Schine, Lee Smith, Calvin Trillin, Wendy Wasserstein, Al Young
(Second Session)
Master of Ceremonies:Patricia Marx
The John Hersey Memorial Address: Calvin Trillin
Paul Beatty, Judy Blume, Blanche McCrary Boyd, Augusten Burroughs, Billy Collins, Nora Ephron, Bruce Jay Friedman, Molly Ivins, Ruth Ozeki, ZZ Packer, Roger Rosenblatt, Cathleen Schine, James Tate, Calvin Trillin, Garry Trudeau, Meg Wolitzer

2004: Crossing Borders
Listen to recordings from this event in our 2004 Audio Archives

John Hersey Memorial Lecture: Bharati Mukherjee
Moderators: Morris Dickstein, Patricia Hampl, Katherine Lanpher
Elmaz Abinader, Clark Blaise, Robert Olen Butler, Lan Cao, Sandra Cisneros, Andrei Codrescu, Junot Diaz, Cristina Garcia, Francisco Goldman, Aleksandar Hemon, Eva Hoffman, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, David Wong Louie, Bharati Mukherjee, Elizabeth Nuñez, Amy Tan

2003: Poetry – The Beautiful Changes
Listen to recordings from this event in our 2003 Audio Archives

John Hersey Memorial Lecture: Derek Walcott
Kim Addonizio, John Ashbery, Lucille Clifton, Billy Collins, Robert Creeley, Martín Espada, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carolyn Forché, Forrest Gander, Dan Gerber, Jane Hirshfield, Dorianne Laux, Semezdin Mehmedinovic, Sharon Olds, Charles Simic, James Tate, Quincy Troupe, Derek Walcott, Richard Wilbur, C. D. Wright

2002: Spirit of Place
John Hersey Memorial Lecture: Peter Matthiessen
(First Session)
Russell Banks, Hal Crowther, Wilma Dykeman, Richard Ford, Dagoberto Gilb, Allan Gurganus, Kent Haruf, William Kittredge, Maxine Kumin, Peter Matthiessen, Valerie Miner, Jay Parini, Robert Richardson, Mona Simpson, Annick Smith, Lee Smith, Deanne Urmy, Joan Williams, Joy Williams
(Second Session)
Dorothy Allison, John Barth, Madeleine Blais, Chitra Divakaruni, Carl Hiaasen, Linda Hogan, James D. Houston, Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen, Valerie Miner, Gloria Naylor, Howard Norman, Michael Ondaatje, Annie Proulx, Rebecca Seiferle, Lee Smith, Linda Spalding

2001: Science and Literature: Narratives of Discovery
John Hersey Memorial Lecture: Stephen Jay Gould
Natalie Angier, Carl Djerassi, Barbara Ehrenreich, Timothy Ferris, Ira Flatow, Robin Fox, Murray Gell-Mann, James Gleick, Stephen Jay Gould, Roald Hoffmann, Sue Hubbell, Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan, Dava Sobel, Marcia Southwick, Steven Weinberg, Jonathan Weiner

2000: The Memoir
John Hersey Memorial Lecture: Frank McCourt
Russell Baker, Madeleine Blais, Rosemary Bray, Marie Chaix, Walter de Milly, Nancy Friday, Patricia Hampl, Eddy L. Harris, Lorian Hemingway, Joyce Maynard, Frank McCourt, Anchee Min, Jane O'Reilly, Katherine Russell Rich, Wilfrid Sheed, Calvin Trillin, Geoffrey Wolff, Tobias Wolff, William Wright

1999: The American Novel
John Hersey Memorial Lecture: E.L. Doctorow
E.L. Doctorow, Morgan Entrekin, Joseph Heller, Jamaica Kincaid, Alison Lurie, Harry Mathews, Peter Matthiessen, Joyce Carol Oates, Faith Sale, Susan Shreve, Robert Stone, Amy Tan, John Edgar Wideman, Hilma Wolitzer

1998: Once Upon A Time: Children's Literature in the Late 20th Century
John Hersey Memorial Lecture: E.L. Konigsburg
Arnold Adoff, Judy Blume, Joseph Bruchac, Laurent de Brunhoff, Bruce Coville, Paula Danziger, Virginia Hamilton, Richard Jackson, Elizabeth Keyser, E.L. Konigsburg, Lois Kuznets, Eden Ross Lipson, Perry Nodelman, Richard Peck, Jerry Pinkney, Rosemary Wells, Nancy Willard, Jane Yolen

1997: Literature in the Age of AIDS
John Hersey Memorial Lecture: Edmund White
Ann Beattie, David Bergman, Michael Bronski, Rebecca Brown, Rafael Campo, Robert Dawidoff, Michael Denneny, Mark Doty, Christine Downing, Jewelle Gomez, Rachel Hadas, Andrew Holleran, Diane Johnson, Larry Kramer, Tony Kushner, David Leavitt, Dale Peck, Patricia Powell, Frank Rich, Benjamin Saenz, Sarah Schulman, Abraham Verghese, David Wagoner, Edmund White

1996: American Writers and the Natural World
John Hersey Memorial Lecture: Annie Dillard
Rick Bass, Annie Dillard, Gretel Ehrlich, Jim Harrison, Linda Hogan, Thomas McGuane, Richard K. Nelson, John Nichols, Doug Peacock, Robert D. Richardson, Jr., Frederick Turner, James Welch, Joy Williams, Terry Tempest Williams

1995: Journalism
Madeline Blais, Philip Caputo, Barbara Ehrenreich, Linda Ellerbee, Osborn Elliott, Mark Foster Ethridge III, Fred Friendly, David Halberstam, Pete Hamill, Louis Harris, Seymore Hersh, David Lawrence Jr., John Naisbitt, Jane O'Reilly, Anna Quindlen, Brent Staples

1994: Biography & Autobiography
Shana Alexander, A. Scott Berg, Carol Brightman, Chris Chase, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Vivian Gornick, Justin Kaplan, David McCullough, Nancy Milford, James Merrill, Phyllis Rose, Edmund White, Geoffrey Wolff, William Wright

1993: The Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop
Listen to recordings from this event in our 1993 Audio Archives

Frank Bidart, John Malcolm Brinnin, Robert Giroux, Lorrie Goldensohn, Elizabeth Hardwick, Anthony Hecht, J.D. McClatchy, James Merrill, Barbara Page, Octavio Paz, Alice Quinn, Mary Jo Salter, Lloyd Schwartz, Elizabeth Spires, Mark Strand, Richard Wilbur

1992: Literature and Film
Donald Bogle, Blythe Danner, Arlene Donovan, William Everson, Robert Geller, William Goldman, Molly Haskell, Stuart M. Kaminsky, Paul N. Lazarus III, William Rothman, Andrew Sarris, Bud Schulberg, Robert Stone

1991: Literature of Travel: A Sense of Place
T.D. Allman, Russell Banks, John Malcolm Brinnin, Philip Burton, Thurston Clarke, Peter Matthiessen, Gary Ross Mormino, Jan Morris, Mary Morris, Jane O'Reilly, Carolyn Bennett Patterson, Ann Peyton, Patrick Smith, Robert Stone, William Styron, Calvin Trillin, Joy Williams, William Wright

1990: New Directions in American Theatre
Joanne Akalaitis, John M. Bradley, Vinnette Carroll, Constance Congdon, Jane Ann Crum, Christine Arnold Dolen, Christopher Durang, Maria Irene Fornes, John Guare, Len Jenkin, Emily Mann, Bonnie Marranca, Joseph V. Melillo, Julia Miles, Donn Murphy, Eric Overmeyer, Wendy Wasserstein, Mac Wellman, Lanford Wilson

1989: The American Short Story: A Renaissance
Russell Banks, Leslie Fiedler, Doris Grumbach, Bill Henderson, Rust Hills, David Kranes, A. Walton Litz, Bobbie Ann Mason, George E. Murphy, Jr., James Nagel, Shannon Ravenel, Jane Smiley, Ted Solotaroff, Peter Taylor, James Welch, John Edgar Wideman, Joy Williams

1988: Whodunit? The Art and Tradition of Mystery Literature
John Ball, Howard Browne, Ray B. Browne, Matthew Bruccoli, Knox Burger, Mary Higgins Clark, James Crumley, Paul Erdman, James Wilson Hall, Carl Hiaasen, Tony Hillerman, Joan Kahn, John Katzenbach, Elmore Leonard, Dennis McMillan, Otto Penzler, Marilyn Stasio, Richard P. Sugg, Irving Weinman, Donald Westlake, Charles Willeford, Robin W. Winks

1987: Writers and Key West
James Boatwright, Philip Burton, Philip Caputo, Virginia Spencer Carr, Bill Cosford, Marie Cosindas, Bonnie Costello, Scott Donaldson, Rust Hills, David A. Kaufelt, Stetson Kennedy, Alison Lurie, Thomas McGuane, Rollie McKenna, Roger McNiven, James Merrill, Jane O'Reilly, Anne Rowe, Thomas Sanchez, Richard A. Schwartz, Les Standiford, Helen Vendler, Richard Wilbur, Joy Williams, William Wright

1986: Tennessee Williams in Key West
Christine Arnold, Milly S. Barranger, John Malcolm Brinnin, J. Robert Dietz, William S. Gray, Mel Gussow, Allean Hale, James Leo Herlihy, W. Kenneth Holditch, James Kirkwood, James Laughlin, Kenneth E. Moore, Jerrold Phillips, William Plumley, Peggy Prenshaw, Donald Spoto, Ertem A. Weinkopf, Lanford Wilson

1985: Hemingway: A Moveable Feast
James Brasch, Philip Caputo, Scott Donaldson, Robert Gajdusek, Patrick Hemingway, Jo August Hills, Allen Josephs, Donald Junkins, Bernice Kert, Frank Laurence, Timothy O'Brien, George Plimpton, Michael Reynolds, William Robertson, Charles Scribner Jr., Joseph Sigman, Paul Smith, Robert Stone, Linda Wagner

1984: Key West Literary Tour and Seminar
James Boatwright, John Malcolm Brinnin, Philip Caputo, William Grose, Nat Hentoff, Carl Hiaasen, John Katzenbach, David A. Kaufelt, Judith F. Krug, Alison Lurie, Evelyn Wilde Mayerson, James Merrill, Thomas Sanchez, Rebecca Sinkler, Alice K. Turner, Richard Wilbur

1983: Key West Literary Tour and Seminar
Philip Caputo, John Ciardi, Ross Claiborne, Dick Duane, Nancy Friday, Jay Garon, Jim Harrison, Ed Hayes, David Kaufelt, Seymour Laurence, W.H. Manville, Kathryn Hall Proby, William K. Robertson, Thomas Sanchez, Harvey Shapiro, Ramona Stewart, Jack Tannen, William Wright