Four Tuesdays: September 6, 13, 20, 27 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. EDT Hybrid Online and in person at Conn. Ave. Classroom SOLD OUT
Recordings will be Available. In-person seats are sold out.
In an age of alternative facts, George Orwell and Joan Didion have emerged as secular saints, masterful truthtellers whose landmark works of creative nonfiction are uncompromising in their commitment to honesty through language. In this four-session course, we'll do some close reading of a few of Orwell and Didion's most well-known works (including Didion's "Why I Write" which pays homage to Orwell) in order to understand why their work has been so significant and influential not only for other writers but also the culture at large. And together we'll venture a few educated guesses as to who are the Orwells and Didions of our own time, forcing us to confront hard truths that might otherwise go ignored. How might writing be a kind of antidote to the hyperbole and false rhetoric that has poisoned our contemporary discourse?
Four Tuesdays: September 6, 13, 20, 27 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. EDT Hybrid Online and in person at Conn. Ave. Classroom
Required Reading:
A Collection Of Essays by George Orwell (9780156186001)
Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays by Joan Didion (9780374531386)
Suggested Reading for further Orwell/Didion exploration:
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell (9780544382046)
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell (9780156262248)
Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion (9780593318485)
The White Album by Joan Didion (9780374532079)
Aaron Hamburger is the author of a story collection titled THE VIEW FROM STALIN’S HEAD which was awarded the Rome Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and nominated for a Violet Quill Award. He has also written three novels: FAITH FOR BEGINNERS, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, NIRVANA IS HERE, winner of a Bronze Medal from the 2019 Foreword Reviews Indies Book Awards, and HOTEL CUBA, due out from Harper Perennial in 2023. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Village Voice, Tin House, Michigan Quarterly Review, Subtropics, Crazyhorse, Boulevard, Poets & Writers, Tablet, O, the Oprah Magazine, Out, The Massachusetts Review, The Bennington Review, Nerve, Time Out, Details, and The Forward. He has also won fellowships from Yaddo, Djerassi, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the Edward F. Albee Foundation as well as first prize in the Dornstein Contest for Young Jewish Writers, and his short fiction and creative non-fiction have received special mentions in the Pushcart Prizes.He has taught creative writing at Columbia University, the George Washington University, New York University, Brooklyn College, and the Stonecoast MFA Program.
REFUND POLICY: Please note that we can issue class refunds up until seven (7) days before the first class session.
