Visiting Writers Series Welcomes Author

The stories that long captivate us to think, feel, and imagine draw on all the dimensions of curiosity and emotion. Standing on the stage of the Taylor Performing Arts Center, acclaimed writer and author Andre Dubus III eloquently echoed similar sentiments as he performed an excerpt from his latest essay collection, Ghost Dog: On Killers and Kin for Upper School students and faculty during the Visiting Writers Series.

The Visiting Writers Series is supported by the Betty Lou Blumberg Endowed Chair of English. The program was established in honor of former English Department Chair Betty Lou Blumberg and continues to allow the English Department to invite writers and poets to campus for reading and literary workshops. Mrs. Blumberg was in attendance along with former Director of Curriculum and Instruction and English teacher Helen Barnstable. 

“I am honored to welcome back Andre Dubus to Hamden Hall as part of the Visiting Writer Series,” said English Department Chair and faculty member Paul Gustafson. “Mr. Dubus had previously visited in 2017 as part of this program, and we are thrilled to have him here today to share his newest essay collection.”

Ghost Dog: On Killers and Kin features 18 passages that reflect on emotional reckoning, personal success, failures, life challenges, and the centrality of deep family relationships. As the audience went quiet, Mr. Dubus began reading an essay titled The Land of No, which weaved his personal life experiences and the positive and negative feelings that encompass the human experience. The essay touched upon his childhood upbringing, the social class gaps in his relationship, and other feelings of doubt, resentment, and personal fears. He concluded the reading with a round of questions and provided helpful insight on how and why it is necessary to write.

“If you want to get some clarity on what you believe and what you feel, just begin writing, said Mr. Dubus. “We always reveal ourselves in our work as we are all born with an imagination and intuition. I encourage you to write freely with no outline or guidelines. As I have learned over my career to lean into the positive and negatives of the human experience, be sure to approach life with authentic curiosity and whatever direction your truth is pulling you in the moment, write about it.”

Following the assembly, Mr. Dubus hosted a workshop for a group of Honors English students in Swain Library. He began the workshop by differentiating between the writing style of a journalist versus a novelist, stating the journalist’s job is “to record what happened and to convey information" where the novelist’s approach should be “experiential.” To further emphasize his point, Mr. Dubus led the group through a series of creative writing exercises where he instructed them to describe a person. As the students worked on the prompt, he  gave them three unique angles of focus for their description, specifically asking them to detail the smell they associate with that person, what light with which they see this person, and lastly what sounds they relate to this person.

After each exercise, Mr. Dubus asked for volunteers to read what they'd written aloud, and he pointed out the images that began to "suggest a story." He explained that when we write with our senses, "specific images show up." Through these images, he said, "a person begins to emerge and a story begins to happen all on its own."  

“Mr. Dubus’s teaching was equally generous and insightful,” commented Mr. Paul Gustafson. “Everyone left the workshop feeling like they had discovered new ways to develop characters.”