BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Literary Festival will host James Schiff and Michael Updike for a virtual “Literary Cocktail Hour” Wednesday, May 13, at 5 p.m.
Festival organizers said in a news release that they are excited to host Schiff in conversation with John Updike’s son Michael for a literary conversation focused on Schiff’s latest book, The Selected Letters of John Updike.
“John Updike remains one of the most admired and prolific voices in American Literature,” wrote organizers. “Over five decades, he produced novels, short stories, poems, criticism, and essays that examine faith and art, desire, and the American experience in all its complexity.”
His tetralogy, the Rabbit novels, earned him two Pulitzer Prizes and a place in the canon of 20th-century fiction. Beyond his published pages, Updike was a dedicated correspondent. “He wrote thousands of letters to family, friends, editors, and fellow writers in ongoing intimate conversations that reveals the man behind the meticulous prose,” said organizers.
In Selected Letters, Schiff offers readers a window into that private world. Schiff presents a portrait of Updike “as both craftsman and confidante, generous, witty, and endlessly reflective about writing and life.”
Schiff was born and raised in Cincinnati. He received his bachelor’s degree from Duke University and his master’s and doctorate from New York University. He is professor of English at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author or editor of six books on contemporary American fiction, including John Updike Revisited and Understanding Reynolds Price.
He serves on the John Updike Literary Trust which, in 2016, named him to edit a volume of Updike’s letters. He is currently working on a biography of Updike and is the editor of The John Updike Review.
Michael Updike spent his childhood in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and has lived in Newburyport/Newbury since 1992. He is an artist, designer, and sculptor. For more than three decades he has designed for Mariposa, an import tabletop company and, for the past 15 years, he worked with stone. He exhibits his carved slate tiles in galleries and art festivals across New England.
Brattleboro Literary Festival organizers said it has grown from year to year to become “one of the region’s most significant annual events” and has presented more than 1,000 authors, including winners of awards such as the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, Women’s Prize, and the Newbery and Caldecott medals. The Festival will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in October. To make a tax deductible donation to the festival, go to brattleborolitfest.org/donate-now.
Literary Cocktail Hour is free. To register, visit bit.ly/864-Updike.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.