Reading Groups

Writers on Writers with Sheila Kohler (Sold Out)

4 Monthly Sessions Wednesdays, 6:00 pm EDT - 7:30 pm EDT June 16 to September 15, 2021

Online via Zoom

This reading group has reached its capacity. To join the waitlist, please email Allison Escoto at [email protected].

Meeting Dates:
6/16, 7/14, 8/18, 9/15

We will read four novels by writers on writers: Penelope Fitzgerald on the poet Novalis (Frederick von Hardenberg) in the beautiful The Blue Flower; Colm Tóibín on Henry James in his masterful The Master; Edmund White on the last days of Stephen Crane in Hotel de Dream; and my own Becoming Jane Eyre on Charlotte Brontë and her family. We will try to determine how these writers have recreated a time and place which is not their own and how they have entered into the minds of these famous writers and the people around them and have brought them to us on the page.

Session I: The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
Session II: The Master by Colm Tóibín
Session III: Hotel de Dream by Edmund White
Session IV: Becoming Jane Eyre by Sheila Kohler

Led by

Sheila Kohler

Sheila Kohler

Sheila Kohler is the author of eleven novels, three volumes of short fiction, a memoir, and many essays. Her most recent novel is Open Secrets (July 2020, Penguin). She has won numerous prizes including the O.Henry twice and been included in Best American Short Stories, most recently in 2013. Her work has been published in thirteen countries. She has taught at Columbia, Sarah Lawrence, Bennington and at Princeton since 2007. Her novel, Cracks was made into a film with directors Jordan and Ridley Scott, with Eva Green playing Miss G. You can find her blog at Psychology Today under “Dreaming for Freud.”

About this series

Reading Groups

Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

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