Stephen A. Schwarzman Building > Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers

2009 SUMMER SEMINARS FOR
MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS

During my week at the Cullman Center, I have been nourished intellectually by the challenging coursework, socially by the amazing company, and physically by all the delicious food. It’s been like a spa for my brain and my soul, and I thank you so much for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

-RACHEL BELLO, Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction, Brooklyn, NY

The Summer Seminars program at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers offers teachers the chance to spend a week enriching their understanding of history, literature, and research in one of the world's greatest libraries.

The Cullman Center, located in The New York Public Library's landmark building on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, is the setting for a series of stimulating, informal, daily seminars led by some of the world's finest writers, literary critics, and historians. Participants will also learn how to use the extraordinary resources of the Library and be given time to do their own research and writing in a congenial setting.

Amenities provided for Seminar participants include: A $300 stipend All required books and course materials Private office (with networked computer) Gourmet breakfasts and lunches

The Cullman Center’s Seminars are limited to fourteen participants each. Middle school and high school English teachers, history teachers, librarians, and administrators are invited to apply.

The 2009 Summer Seminar Courses

Few cities have inspired as much great writing as New York City. We will examine the premise that there is such a thing as New York writing, flowing from the rhythm and mode of being that this city imposes on everyone in its orbit. We will discuss short works from the anthology Writing New York, and students will try their hand at a variety of literary forms, including the urban sketch, poems, and stories.

PHILLIP LOPATE holds the Adams Chair in English at Hofstra University. His many books include Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan and Getting Personal.

This course, designed for English and history teachers, will look at the decade before the Civil War, when slavery became an explosive problem that left deep marks on the literary culture. We will study primary sources such as the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, as well as Uncle Tom's Cabin and Benito Cereno, in order to see how different thinkers encountered the contradictions of American slavery and attempted to resolve them.

EZRA TAWIL teaches early American literature at Columbia University. He is the author of The Making of Racial Sentiment: Slavery and the Birth of the Frontier Romance.

In this creative writing workshop, students will discuss the writing technique of contemporary writers such as Judy Budnitz, Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, and Joy Williams. Students will be given writing exercises that explore such techniques as creating suspense and mystery, using figurative language, sharpening dialogue, and creating conflict. These exercises, as well as one longer short story per student, will be critiqued in class.

EDMUND WHITE is the author, most recently, of the biography Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel and the novel Hotel de Dream. He teaches at Princeton University.

Applications are no longer being accepted for the 2009 Summer Seminars. Information about the 2010 Summer
Seminars for Teachers will be posted in January, 2010.

The Cullman Center is made possible by a generous endowment from Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman in honor of Brooke Russell Astor, with major support provided by Mrs. John L. Weinberg, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Estate of Charles J. Liebman, Mel and Lois Tukman, John and Constance Birkelund, The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, and additional gifts from The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Helen and Roger Alcaly, The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, William W. Karatz, The Rona Jaffe Foundation, Lybess Sweezy and Ken Miller, and The Achelis and Bodman Foundations.

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