LOA LIVE: Online programs inspired by Library of America publications

Video September 1, 2023

LOA LIVE: Online programs inspired by Library of America publications

Join us for online presentations featuring acclaimed literary critics, historians, and other scholars.

• Watch past programs
• Listen to LOA LIVE as a podcast via New Books Network
• Sign up for invitations to future online events and monthly LOA news
• Browse a list of our top ten LOA LIVE programs of all time

LOA LIVE programs are made possible by contributions from friends like you, and we encourage you to consider making a donation to support future presentations.

Upcoming Programs from Library of America

Exploring Earthsea: Ursula K. Le Guin’s Fantasy Masterpiece
with Karen Joy Fowler, Nghi Vo, and Brian Attebery

Tuesday, September 15
6:00–7:00 PM ET
RSVP Now
Or go to: rebrand.ly/Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea saga has enchanted generations of readers and stands as a foundational classic of the fantasy genre. To mark publication of the definitive Library of America edition, acclaimed writers Karen Joy Fowler and Nghi Vo join volume editor Brian Attebery to kick off the fall LOA LIVE season with a fascinating plunge into these beloved novels of magic, dragons, nature, naming, and identity. LOA associate editor Stefanie Peters moderates.

This online event is free to attend, but you must register in advance.

The American Short Story
A new online course with Michael Gorra

Four sessions: Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1, Oct. 8
Click here to Register
Or go to: rebrand.ly/GorraStories

This fall, acclaimed scholar and critic Michael Gorra invites you on a journey through America’s signature literary form. Focusing on eight of its greatest practitioners, this four-part online course will explore the American short story: its origins, recurring themes, and fascinating evolution.

Beginning with nineteenth-century pathbreakers Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne and culminating with postwar masters Eudora Welty and John Cheever, the course will discuss along the way a local color masterpiece by Sarah Orne Jewett, the “Post-Bellum–Pre-Harlem” genius of Black author Charles W. Chesnutt, and the Gilded Age flowering of the genre in the supreme achievements of Henry James and Edith Wharton.

Registration fee: $200 (includes a coupon for 40% off selected LOA volumes connected to this course)
LOA Members get the special members’ rate of $150 (25% off).

Reading America
A series of online master classes from Library of America

Parul Sehgal on Arthur Miller
Thursday, September 24

This fall, our Reading America series of online master classes continues with New York Times critic-at-large Parul Sehgal on playwright Arthur Miller.

Miller’s plays of the 1940s and 1950s—All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge—electrified theatergoers and established him as one of the indispensable voices of the postwar era in America. With a particular focus on All My Sons, this session explores some of the characteristic conflicts of Miller’s work—between fathers and sons, desire and obligation, self and community—while paying close attention to the effect his mastery of dramatic devices such as motive, psychology, and resolution has on readers and audience members.

Click here to Register
Or go to: rebrand.ly/Reading2026

Registration fee: $50
LOA Members get the special members’ rate of $40 ($10 off).

The Living Declaration
Free online events across the country

Sept. 27: Library Foundation of Los Angeles / ALOUD
Sept. 30: Massachusetts Historical Society

This September, our Living Declaration national public humanities initiative continues with two free public programs exploring the genesis and legacy of America’s founding text.

First, on Sept. 27, the Library Foundation of Los Angeles and ALOUD host The Pursuit of Happiness, 1945 to Today, bringing together a dynamic line-up of artists, activists, writers, and historians to explore the past, present, and future of the Declaration of Independence. The evening will feature readings and reflections from Pico Iyer, Héctor Tobar, Youngmi Mayer, Gary Tyler, and Ted Widmer, and will be bookended by a blues medley curated by Rob Stone.

Click here to register

Then, on Sept. 30, the Massachusetts Historical Society presents When in the Course of Human Events, 1689–1776, in which Widmer explores the complex lineage of the words and ideas in the Declaration and the dramatic sequence of events (many of them originating in Massachusetts) that led to the creation of the most consequential state paper in history.

Click here to register

The Living Declaration initiative is made possible by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

PAST EVENTS

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2020

Please note: A complete listing of LOA’s Lift Every Voice events centered on African American poetry can be found at africanamericanpoetry.org.

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