Can books play a role in helping to bridge the deep cultural and political divisions in our nation? There’s no easy answer to the question, but a national series of livestreamed conversations between writers is attempting to find out.
“Write America,” which began in February, features a weekly discussion between two or three writers and sometimes artists from other fields. The series has been created by veteran journalist, novelist and playwright Roger Rosenblatt, who teaches English and writing at Stony Brook University in New York.
On the project’s website, Rosenblatt says that the series is predicated on the idea that “[a] writer’s words are a tacit call for people to gather round and discover or rediscover their connections to one another.”
The writers who are part of the program, Rosenblatt says, are “concerned about the divisions in our country that have evidenced themselves and deepened over the past few years. We see a torn America these days, jeopardizing basic principles of justice, freedom, fair play and equality.”
So far, the series has featured writers such as the novelists Russell Banks and Alice McDermott, poets Paul Muldoon and Rita Dove, cartoonist (and essayist) Gary Trudeau, and songwriter Alan Bergman.
On Monday, March 22, Whately nonfiction writers George Howe Colt and Anne Fadiman, who are married, will be joined by poet Carl Phillips for the latest talk in the series, which begins at 7 p.m. The presentation, streamed on CrowdCast and hosted by a bookstore in Huntington, New York, is free, although registration is required.
In a phone call from their home, Fadiman and Colt said they’ve enjoyed watching the previous seven episodes in the series, in some cases getting an introduction to writers they didn’t know well. The format is pretty basic: Each writer does a short reading of his or her work, they talk in turn of their reactions to the other’s writing, and then they take questions from the online audience and discuss the broader questions about civility and national divisions.
Colt, a National Book Award finalist whose most recent book is 2018’s “The Game,” joked that he and Fadiman have watched the programs while eating, “so it that sense it’s like dinner theater.” On a more serious note, he said given the different pairings of writers each week, “the energy is very different, and the conversations can go off in fascinating directions.”
Fadiman, winner of a 1997 National Book Critics Circle Award for her book “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” said she plans to revisit an essay she wrote after 9/11 about moving to Whately and raising an American flag the previous homeowner had flown on the property. Looking back, she says, the terrorist attacks in 2001 had united many Americans — yet on Jan. 6 of this year, the nation witnessed some insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol beating police officers with American flags, leaving the meaning of the flag unclear.
Fadiman and Colt say they were also struck by what a couple previous writers in the series have said about how words can provide an entry into different worlds: While some people want to see their own lives reflected in what they read, the greater power of fiction (or nonfiction) is to transport you to worlds with different ways of life, for with that can come greater understanding of the “other.”
The two Whately writers say they’ve been in touch with their co-panelist, Carl Phillips, about the general parameters of Monday’s talk, but otherwise will let the conversation take its own course. Phillips, a native of Washington state, now teaches at Washington University in Missouri. He is a graduate of Harvard University, the University of Massachusetts and Boston University.
Another coming virtual writers talk: Poet laureates from Massachusetts and Mississippi will hold a discussion Thursday on the role of poetry in public life. It’s part of “MS+MA,” a collaboration of Mass Humanities in Northampton and Mississippi Humanities that’s designed to build connections between residents of both states.
“Verses and Voices,” beginning at 7 p.m., features Mississippi poet laureate Beth Ann Fennelly and her student, Michael Martella, with Worcester poet laureate Juan Matos and Amina Mohammed, Worcester’s youth poet laureate. Following the example of presidential inauguration poet Amanda Gorman, the panelists will discuss how their work reflects the places where they live and write.
The event is free; register for it at MassHumanities.org.
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.