Undergraduate writer at work…in the Times!

We’ve advertised a number of events this fall sponsored by Harvard Writers at Work, a great lecture series that features members of the Harvard community talking about their writing. From the Harvard Writers at Work webpage:

 Launched in 2009, the Harvard Writers at Work lecture series focuses on the ways that writing, by those at Harvard, connects academic and professional work and the broader public.  The events are primarily aimed at Harvard undergraduates, with a special interest in drawing freshmen in order to inspire them at the outset of their education to see, no matter what their concentration, that writing matters and that they can create a writing life while in college and in their future careers.  The series is co-sponsored by the Harvard Review, the Harvard Extension School, and the Program in General Education.

Today, we’d like to offer congratulations to an undergraduate who is already creating a distinguished writing life for herself.    In 2009, Charlotte Alter’s essay “Tense and Tension: The Past and Present in “Self-Reliance” was published in Exposé, the Harvard College Writing Program’s journal of exceptional student writing. Charlotte is now a senior at Harvard, and this weekend the New York Times published her essay, “Romance’s New Format.”   Congratulations, Charlotte!

Narrative Journalism event

Writing Narrative Journalism: A Conversation with Gay Talese and Chris Jones
2 pm, Friday, November 18
Fong Auditorium
Boylston Hall
 

Literary journalism icon Gay Talese is the bestselling author of eleven books. He was a reporter for the New York Times from 1956 to 1965, and since then he has written for the Times, Esquire, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and other national publications. His groundbreaking article “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” was named the “best story Esquire ever published,” and he was credited by Tom Wolfe with the creation of an inventive form of nonfiction writing called “The New Journalism.” His most recent book, A Writer’s Life, was published by Knopf in 2006 and reissued in trade paperback by The Random House Publishing Group in July 2007. A collection of his sportswriting, The Silent Season of a Hero, was published by Walker & Company in September 2010.

Chris Jones, Esquire magazine writer-at-large, has twice won the National Magazine Award, the first for his story “Home,” which chronicled the experiences of three astronauts stranded on the space station when the shuttle Columbia exploded, and the second for his article “The Things That Carried Him,” which told the story of one soldier’s last trip home from Iraq. He is a contributing editor for ESPN: The Magazine. His work has appeared in Best American Magazine Writing and Best American Sports Writing.

Mr. Talese’s and Mr. Jones’s conversation is co-sponsored by the Nieman Foundation and the Harvard Writers at Work Lecture Series, which is co-sponsored by the Harvard College Writing Program, the Harvard Review, the and Harvard Extension School Master”s Degree Program in Journalism. The Series seeks to explore the power of writing at Harvard and beyond.

Next week’s events in the Harvard Writers at Work Lecture Series

Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain on The Future of Writing and How to Stop It, Thurs., Oct 6, 7:30 pm

Jonathan Zittrain
“The Future of Writing and How to Stop It”
7:30 pm, Thursday, October 6
Thompson Room,
The Barker Center

Mr. Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. His research interests include battles for control of digital property and content, cryptography, electronic privacy, the roles of intermediaries within Internet architecture, human computing, and the useful and unobtrusive deployment of technology in education.
In addition to discussing some of the ideas in his book The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It, Professor Zittrain will talk about his own craft of writing and the state of writing in the digital era. His talk will be followed by a question and answer period.   
The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It is available from Yale University Press and Penguin UK — and under a Creative Commons license.  Papers may be found at <http://www.jz.org <http://www.jz.org/> >.

Professor Zittrain’s talk is part of the Harvard Writers at Work Lecture Series, sponsored by the Harvard College Writing Program, the Harvard Review, the Harvard Extension School Writing Program, and the Program in General Education. The Series seeks to explore the power of writing at Harvard and beyond.
  
Get advice on the craft of travel writing from a panel of professional travel writers, Tues, Oct. 4, 7:30 pm  

How do you vividly capture a travel experience for readers who weren’t there with you? What makes for memorable travel writing? How do you get your travel writing published? Come hear a panel of professional travel writers discuss the art and craft of travel writing.
 
Adam Sachs, contributing editor, Travel + Leisure and Bon Appétit

Danielle Pergament, executive editor, Lucky Magazine and New York Times travel writer
 
Josh Dean, travel writer and former deputy editor of Men’s Journal. 

Harvard Writers at Work

Harvard Writers at Work is launching its 2011-2012 lecture series next week. This series, sponsored by the Harvard College Writing Program, the Harvard Review, the Harvard Extension School Writing Program, and the Program in General Education,  seeks to explore the power of writing at Harvard and beyond. 

This is a great series. We’ll be posting information about all of their events, so watch this space!

How to Write a Philosophy Paper

Dave Langlois, Departmental Writing Fellow in Philosophy, will present a workshop on the fundamentals of writing in philosophy on September 14 at 3 pm in Emerson 101.  He will discuss the mechanics of writing philosophy papers, introduce students to how philosophy papers are evaluated, and provide some tips for philosophical writing.

WELCOME BACK

The Writing Center will open for the semester on September 13 at 9 a.m.  We look forward to seeing you soon!

Attention first-year students!

Submission Guidelines to Exposé
the online magazine of writing from the Harvard University community


What We Seek
Exposé is now accepting submissions from first-year students in the college. We are looking for strong, argumentative prose written under the direction of our Expos course offerings. In these essays, we seek a range of topics and approaches that reflect the wide panorama of intellectual engagement among our first-year students. We also seek creative writing in fiction and poetry. All submissions will be considered for prizes.

What to Submit
To submit fiction, please follow the requirements of the Ecker Short Story Prize for Freshmen (sent under separate cover). For poetry, submit a portfolio of work no more than 10 pages. There is no length limit for essays written under one of our Expos course offerings. We are looking for single-source analyses, comparative essays and research projects on a variety of texts, issues and topics.

How to Submit
To submit to Exposé, navigate to our submission tab either on the Harvard Writing Program website or on the Exposé magazine homepage. Please note: you must login using your Harvard ID and password to see the submission tab.

When to Submit:
The deadline for all submissions is Wednesday, May 18th.

Questions?
For questions specific to the Ecker Short Story Prize, please contact Karen Heath < klheath@fas.harvard.edu >

For all other questions, please contact Zachary Sifuentes at < zsifuent@fas.harvard.edu