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.

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• 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. Visit loa.org/loalive to donate.

Brenda Wineapple (photo: Elena Seibert)

1925: The Scopes Trial, the Culture War, and Four American Masterpieces
with Brenda Wineapple

Wednesday, October 16
6:00–7:00 PM ET
Click here to RSVP

In 1925 the Scopes “Monkey Trial,” challenging a Tennessee ban on teaching evolution in public schools, pitted urban “elites” against rural “populists,” modernity against tradition, science against faith—and sounded the opening bell of the American culture wars. Wrestling with the same historical moment, four foundational masterpieces of our national literature made their debuts: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway, An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, and “The New Negro,” the groundbreaking essay by Alain Locke that ignited the Harlem Renaissance.

Join acclaimed historian Brenda Wineapple, author of Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial that Riveted a Nation, for a fascinating new perspective on a watershed year and four iconic works you’ll never read the same way again.

Contribution to attend: $15
LOA Members get the special rate of $7.50 (50% off). Find out more about becoming a Member.

After the event, as a thank-you for your generous support, all attendees will receive a recording of the program and a 20% off coupon to use on their next purchase of books from the LOA Web Store.

We thank our promotional partner: the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics & Writers.

Adam Gopnik, American Writers in Paris course for Library of America

Adam Gopnik (photo: Brigitte Lacombe)

The Paris We Dreamed, The Paris We Made: American Writers in France
an online course with Adam Gopnik

Four sessions: Oct. 29, Nov. 12, Nov. 19, and Nov. 26
Click here to RSVP

This fall, embark for the European capital of our national literature with bestselling New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik. This four-part online course, inspired by Gopnik’s Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology, offers a guided tour of the City of Light through the eyes of Americans who discovered personal and creative freedom amid its rues, garrets, and cafes.

Beginning with the first stirrings of an “American Paris” with Founders Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, the class will explore the Belle Epoque brilliance of Mark Twain, Henry James, and Edith Wharton; the breakthrough masterpieces of Lost Generation writers Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein; the Black travelers and expatriates Frederick Douglass, James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin; and poets, humorists, and food writers including A. J. Liebling, M.F.K. Fisher, and Gopnik himself.

Drawing on his love and deep knowledge of the city, its history, denizens, and culture, Gopnik will lead the class—in his characteristically engaging style—through American literature’s longstanding French connection, showing how this transcontinental exchange shaped some of our greatest writers and transformed our culture in the process.

Registration fee: $200 (includes a copy of Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology)

LOA Members get the special discount rate of $150 (25% off). Learn more about becoming an LOA Member.

To ensure you receive your copy of Americans in Paris by the first session, October 29, please register by Thursday, October 17.

Please note: Due to the high cost of international delivery, we are unable to ship books outside the U.S. and its territories.

Classes will take place on the Zoom platform and will last 75 minutes. Attendees are encouraged to share questions in advance and during the class, and Adam Gopnik will send a follow-up e-mail after each meeting with reflections on the class discussion, suggestions for further reading, and a recording of the full session.

PAST EVENTS

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

2024

Burning Down the House: Reading Faulkner’s Short Stories Now
September 17, 2024
Recording currently available only for Library of America Members and program attendees.