Weber, Shara

English

Old Dominion University

I 3 Ip I I I , .. uThe call of stories" I 've appropriated the phrase from the Harvard psychiatrist Robert Coles, who found narrative to be the best way of communicating with his patients. In his words, "Their story, yours, and mine - it's what we all carry with us on this trip we take, and we owe it to each other to respect our stories and learn from them." The instinct to shape experience into story, using the most human of tools, language, may be one of our primal drives. For most of us, especially for writers, the door to the world was opened with tales we heard. As Flannery O'Connor once remarked, "I think the writer is initially set going by literature more than life." Literature is essentially a story made universal through the mysterious, mythic power of the right words in the right order. Most of us yearn for stories, not because they will save us from the consequences of the world, but because they help us to find our humanity in facing those moments, both expected and surprising. For me, Cormac McCarthy explains succinctly and gracefully the importance of telling and listening in the concluding volume of the Border Trilogy, Cities of the Plain: "Every man's death is a standing in for every other. And since death comes to all there is no way to abate the fear of it except to love the man who stands for us. We are not waiting for his history to be written. He passed here long ago. The man who is all men and who stands in the dock for us until our own time comes and we must stand for him. Do you love him, that man? Will you honor the path he has taken? Will you listen to his tale?" The tales to be shared in Old Dominion University's 31st annual Literary Festival come from world-class storytellers, be they musicians, poets, essayists or novelists. Listen. Michael Pearson 2008 Festival Director Schedule· Tuesday, September 23 11 a.m. Greg Bottoms University Village Bookstore-lawn tent 2 p.m. John McManus University Village Bookstore-lawn tent 7:30 p.m. Aztec Two-Step Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center 6:30-7:15 p.m. Author Reception* University Village Bookstore Wednesday, September 24 11 a.m. Peter Meinke and Michael Blumenthal: A Conversation University Village Bookstore-lawn tent 2 p.m. Lenore Hart University Village Bookstore-lawn tent 4p.m. Shara Mccallum University Village Bookstore-lawn tent 8p.m. Claudia Emerson Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center 7:00-7:45 p.m. Author Reception* University Village Bookstore Thursday, September 25 11 a.m. Writers in Community University Village Bookstore-lawn tent 2 p.m. Gioia Timpanelli University Village Bookstore-lawn tent 4 p.m. Steve Almond University Village Bookstore-lawn tent 8 p.m. Mary Karr Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center 7:00-7:45 p.m. Author Reception* University Village Bookstore Friday, September 26 11 a.m. Rishi Reddi University Village Bookstore-lawn tent 2 p.m. Douglas Kearney University Village Bookstore-lawn tent 8 p.m. Richard Bausch Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center 7:00-7:45 p.m. Author Reception* University Village Bookstore *Free bus shuttle to Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center provided. Old Dominion University,s 31st Literary Festival and 2008-09 President,s Lecture Series Present "Sports:TheHypeand The Hoopla" Featuring Author, Commentator and Columnist Frank Deford Thursday, September 25, 2008 7:30 p.m., North Cafeteria, Webb University Center Frank Deford is the author of 15 books, with his newest, "The Entitled," a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, published in 2007. Deford may be heard as a commentator every Wednesday on NPR's "Morning Edition" and he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show "RealSports with Bryant Gumbel." He is also senior contributing writer at Sports Illustrated. Deford was elected to the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters a~d Sportswriters, and six times was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of the Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of the Year by Washington Journalism Review. The recipient of many honorary degrees, Deford also has won the National Magazine Award for profiles, a Christopher Award and journalism Honor Awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University. Please Note the Following Revised Schedule for Thursday, September 25. The readings will be held in the University Village Bookstore Lawn Tent on Monarch Way. 2:00-3:45 p.m. • Readings by Steve Almond and Gioia Timpanelli 4 p.m. Readings by Mary Karr 6:45-7:15 p.m. Author reception-University Village Bookstore 

Brochure: 31st Annual Literary Festival, 2008: The Call of Stories

https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&amp;context=litfest-2008

Brochure: 31st Annual Literary Festival, 2008: The Call of Stories

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