Literature Classes in NYC, New York

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." - John Muir Join us for a light-hearted look at trees! We will seek to identify a few trees and search for the poems hidden in the furrows of bark and in the slenderest of branches.   This class leans heavily toward the whimsical and will certainly get those creative...

Mesopotamia, the “Land Between the Two Rivers” in present-day Iraq, is often referred to as the Cradle of Civilization. The ancient peoples of this region developed the first cities and multicultural societies, invented writing and the wheel, and left behind incredible works of art and a rich and varied literature. Yet despite their...

“The secret of showmanship consists not of what you really do but what the mystery-loving public thinks you do.” –Harry Houdini Leap into the mysterious life of Harry Houdini as he went from the freak show circuitto Vaudeville, taking audiences and the media along with him. Learn some of the secretsbehind his most famous...

Finnegans Wake: Approaching and Appreciating James Joyce's Baffling Masterpiece Notoriously called the most difficult novel ever written, thought of as either a colossal joke (or waste of time) or the greatest work of genius ever - James Joyce's Finnegans Wake has fascinated and repelled the literary world since its release in 1939. In this class...

Octavia E. Butler is arguably one of the best sci-fi writers of her time. A rarity in her day--African-American and female-- she broke boundaries and created extraordinary, life-changing stories. In this class, we will examine two of her short stories - one from the "Unexpected Stories" collection and another from the "Bloodchild" collection....

This class will cover both how to efficiently search freely available reference databases such as PubMed and how to take advantage of the growing trend towards open access in science to obtain full-text papers without breaking the bank. Even if you don't work at a university or research institution, hundreds of thousands of scientific works are freely...

This class will present a lecture on archaeology, memory and cultural resource management with particular emphasis on Iraq and Syria. We'll examine the political and social significance of archaeological sites in these two countries and offer an analysis of the destruction of cultural heritage that has been conducted by the extremist militant group...

Our ancestors’ stories of success, love, and failure are the foundation of the themes and challenges in our current lives. In this workshop, participants will be guided to search their own histories for ancestral stories and write them as story poems, with an emphasis on the use of descriptive words. The poems can draw upon historical...