Arthur Miller and Five Others to Continue Authors-in-Residence Program

In its second year, the Authors-In-Residence program continues to attract some of the most distinguished and highly decorated literary figures in the country to the classroms of YU. This semester, the students are scheduled to study works by authors James McBride, Jamaica Kincaid, Mary Gordon, Tillie Olsen, William Joseph Kennedy, and playwright Arthur Miller.The inaugural year's participants included celebrated authors such as Jonathan and Faye Kellerman and Richard Rodriguez. It's success prompted the continuation of the program that is centered around the course entitled Honors Seminar in Contemporary American Literature taught by Dr. Joanne Jacobson.

The program involves lectures given by each author or playwright on various Sundays throughout the semester at SCW's Koch Auditorium. During the week subsequent to the lecture, each author addresses the students of Jacobson's class at YC and SCW. Dr. Jacobson notes, "This program is unique, to the best of my knowledge, in that it allows students to actually engage in dialogue with the writers [being studied] and for the writers themselves to conduct classroom lectures."Norman Adler, Dean of YC, emphasized the significance of this program and the reasoning behind its institution at YU. "This project in particular allows a student interested in contemporary literature to interact with, to read, and to absorb the insights of the leading writers in the world today. It’s one of the most significant components of how we can introduce our students to the joy and excitement of the life of the mind."

James McBride is the author of the New York Times #1 best-seller The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, the story of his mother’s birth to Orthodox Jewish parents and her subsequent flight from home to marry an African-American. McBride, a freelance writer, is also a former staff writer for the Boston Globe, People magazine, and the Washington Post.

Jamaica Kincaid is the autobiographical author of At the Bottom of the River, Annie John, Lucy, and most recently, My Brother. Kincaid is a recipient of the 1992 Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund’s annual writer’s award and 1997 Anisfeld Wolf Book Award.

Mary Gordon, an educator and author of short stories and critical essays, is the author of Final Payment, The Company of Women, and The Rest of Life. Gordon is a winner of the Kafka Prize for fiction.

Tillie Olsen is the recipient of an O’Henry Award and the 1975 American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters award, as well as a Guggenheim fellowship. Olsen is the author of Tell Me a Riddle and The World Made Flesh. She has published numerous works of non-fiction.

William Joseph Kennedy is the Pulitzer Prize winning author and 1984 National Book Critics Award recipient for Ironweed. He has also received the McArthur Foundation award.

Arthur Miller is the noted playwright who penned Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and All My Sons. He is the beneficiary of the 1936 Avery Hopwood Award and 1938 Theater Guild National Award, as well as a Drama Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. He has collected three Tony Awards for his plays and an Emmy Award in recognition of Outstanding Writing for the 1980 television drama, "Playing For Time." His most recent honor is a 1995 Oliver Award for the play Broken Glass.