One Writer’s Life: Anne Fadiman on Reading, Writing, and Editing May 5, 2009

ANNE FADIMAN is an author, essayist, editor, and teacher. Her first book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, chronicles the trials of an epileptic Hmong child and her family living in Merced, California. Fadiman’s sensitive, incisive treatment of the unbreachable gulf between the Hmong and the American healthcare system won her a National Book Critics’ Circle Award. The Washington Post called the book “an intriguing, spirit-lifting, extraordinary exploration.” The book continues to be taught at universities both as literary journalism and as a casebook for cross cultural sensitivity in general; it is also widely read by medical practitioners who wish to offer more effective care to patients from other cultures.

In this talk, Ms. Fadiman will read excerpts from several of her books and discuss the practice—her practice—of writing and editing.

As the inaugural Francis Writer in Residence, Yale University’s first endowed appointment in nonfiction writing, Anne Fadiman serves as both a professor in the English department and as a mentor to students considering careers in writing or editing.
Her best-selling essay collection, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, is a book entirely about books — from the purchasing of them, to the reading of them, to the handling of them. The London Observer called Ex Libris “witty, enchanting, and supremely well-written.” It has been or will be translated into thirteen languages, including Korean and Catalan.

For seven years Anne Fadiman edited The American Scholar, described by The New York Times as “an intellectual giant.” Her essays and articles have appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, among many other publications. She has won National Magazine Awards for both reporting and essays. Anne Fadiman is the editor of both the 2003 edition of The Best American Essays and Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love (2005). Her second collection of essays, At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays, was published in 2007.

The Calderwood Writing Initiative at the Boston Athenæum is dedicated to improving the teaching and practice of expository writing in the Boston area.

No fee. Open to the public by advance reservation. Reservations will be accepted starting April 23 at 617-720-7600.

Official Website: http://www.bostonathenaeum.org