The Center for the Literary Arts is pleased to announce that we will host Carmen Maria Machado during Banned Books Week this coming fall. Carmen will visit WashU from Sept. 25-26 to read, discuss the banning of her own books, and meet with students.

Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, The Believer, Guernica, and elsewhere.

Co-sponsored by the Washington University Center for the Humanities

Deidre Maitre, senior lecturer and resident filmmaker in the Program in Film & Media Studies, has received the inaugural CLA Teaching Innovation Award.

The annual Teaching Innovation Awards provide full-time teaching-track and practice-track faculty with up to $5,000 in funding to advance their pedagogical work. Each year’s awardees will form a cohort that meets over the course of the year to share what they are learning. Maitre's innovation grant is funded by the CLA and focuses on creative practice and pedagogy.

The Center for the Literary Arts Faculty Spotlight is a new feature that celebrates the creative practice of WashU faculty. 

For the inaugural edition, CLA postdoctoral fellow Ashley Colley spoke with Professor of English Mary Jo Bang about her new poetry collection, A Film in Which I Play Everyone. 

G’Ra Asim, assistant professor of English

Asim will develop the manuscript for his next creative nonfiction book, 99 Problems Finding the 1. The book will explore the pitfalls of 21st-century love, as viewed from Asim’s personal experiences in the “unforgiving climate of contemporary bachelorhood.” Facing hurdles posed by technology, upbringing, and societal skepticism toward traditional romance, Asim seeks to discover new definitions of love in a rapidly changing world.

Nancy E. Berg, professor of Hebrew language and literature

Berg is compiling an anthology of literary works from Israel by Mizrachi women writers. The CLA fellowship will give her the time and support to translate the pieces not available in English. Describing the project as one of “reclamation, revision, and rectification,” Berg notes that the authors selected have often been overlooked or less considered due to their gender and their family backgrounds from Arab and Islamic lands. 

Todd Decker, Paul Tietjens Professor of Music

Decker will work on the first draft of a new non-fiction book: My Classical Music (and Yours). During the Covid pandemic, Decker watched as his younger son fell in love with classical music, reigniting his own appreciation for the artform. That experience inspired Decker to reconsider how centuries-old composers fit into contemporary life, and how their works continue to capture the hearts of modern listeners.

Julia Walker, chair of the Performing Arts Department, professor of English and performing arts

Walker will adapt Anthony Sattin’s nonfiction book, Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World, into a stage play. Each act of the play will correspond to a chapter in the book, focusing on early human mythologies, infamous nomadic conquerors like Chinggis (a.k.a. Genghis) Khan, and indigenous traditions of caring for the earth's natural resources.

Callie Garnett, Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, and CLA Co-Director Danielle Dutton in conversation, photo by Sean Garcia

Thanks to everyone who attended our events and workshops this year. We look forward to seeing you in the Fall!

Sincerely,

The Center for the Literary Arts Team