Muse & the Marketplace 2018

"Know thyself," the Delphic oracle instructed, perhaps making memoir an inevitable and ancient narrative form, and not as modern as we sometimes think.  But does this focus on self lead to the sorry dead-end of what has been called the "me-moir?"  In this talk, including excerpts from her forthcoming book, The Art of the Wasted Day (a book about leisure and daydream), Patricia Hampl will talk about the virtues and pleasures of descriptive writing, and how dynamic it can be, enlivening to the whole enterprise of first-person narration.  Plenty of time for discussion with audience members.