Department of English

The Sophie Kerr Lecture Series

Additional Events

For more Washington College literary events, check out the First-Year Book and the Rose O'Neill Literary House.

Spring 2007

• April 5, 2007: Poetry Reading by Jim Natal

  On April 5th at 4:30p.m. in the Sophie Kerr Room of the Miller Library, poet Jim Natal read from his works.

  From Natal's website at Conflux Press: "Jim Natal's first full-length collection, In the Bee Trees (Archer Books, 2000) was a finalist for the Pen Center USA and Publisher's Marketing Association Ben Franklin Awards. A second collection, Talking Back to the Rocks, was published by Archer Books in 2003; a third manuscript, Memory and Rain, is in submission.

  "His poetry has been published, reviewed, or is forthcoming in Bellingham Review, Runes, Pool, Reed, The Paterson Literary Review, Poetry International, and The Los Angeles Review among other journals. Natal's work also has appeared in the many anthologies: Chance of a Ghost; Mischief, Caprice and Other Poetic Strategies; Blue Arc; Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose About Alzheimer's Disease; Open Windows; What Have You Lost?; So Luminous the Wildflowers; and Fresh Water."

  For more information about Jim Natal and his work, see his website at Conflux Press.

  Read the Washington College press release here.

• March 23, 2007: Mary Karr Opens Sophie Kerr Weekend with Lecture on "Truth, Lies, and the Craft of Memoir"

  On March 23rd at 5p.m. in the Norman James Theater, poet and memoirist Mary Karr lectured on what it is to be a memoirist, straddling the artistic gap between poetic impressionism and historic veracity. Karr is the bestselling author of memoirs The Liars Club (1995) and Cherry (2000), and of poetry collections Abacus (1987), The Devil's Tour (1993), Viper Rum (1998), and Sinners Welcome (2006). Karr is presently the Jesse Truesdell Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University.

  In her lecture, Karr narrated the events of her life that shaped her authorial voice and perspective. She provided advice to aspiring writers-- memoirists and non-memoirists alike-- on being truthful about one's self when writing. She quoted the advice of author Tobias Wolff, her friend and mentor: "Take no care for your dignity." Good writing, for Karr, begins with unflinching honesty and introspection.

  After her lecture, Karr gave a book signing, and later appeared at President Baird Tipson's home, the Hynson-Ringgold House, for a more intimate question-and-answer session for the benefit of prospective Washington College students interested in creative writing.

  Karr's appearance was the inaugural event of the 2007 Sophie Kerr Weekend, an annual weekend-long series of lectures, workshops, and events tailored for the college's most promising prospective creative writing students.

  To view the college's official press release, click here.

  To view photos from this event, click here.

• March 22, 2007: Thomas Hanks, Jr. on "Lancelot and Gareth: The High-Water Marks of Malory's Morte Darthur"

  On March 22nd at 4:30p.m. in the Casey Academic Center Forum, Professor Thomas Hanks, Jr., of Baylor University gave a lecture on "Lancelot and Gareth: The High-Water Marks of Malory's Morte Darthur."

  Read the press release here.

• February 15, 2007: Poet Elizabeth Arnold Reads From Her Works

  Elizabeth Arnold, who presently teaches in the M.F.A. programs at the University of Maryland and Warren Wilson College, gave a poetry reading in the Sophie Kerr Room of the Miller Library on February 15, at 4:30p.m.

  Read the press release here.

• January 30, 2007: Poet Peter Campion Reads From His Works

  On January 30th at 4:30p.m. in the Sophie Kerr room of the Miller Library, Peter Campion, poet and assistant professor of English at Washington College, gave a reading of his poetry.

  Read the press release here.

Fall 2006

• November 13, 2006: Beckett Centenary Celebration, Part 4 of 4: Johnathan Kalb Presents "Beckett After Beckett"

  On November 13th at 4:30p.m. in the Sophie Kerr room of the Miller Library, theater critic Johnathan Kalb presented the lecture "Beckett after Beckett," the fourth and final event in the college's Samuel Beckett Centenary Celebration.

  Read the press release here.

• November 7, 2006: Author John Vernon Reads From His Work

  On November 7th at 4:30p.m. in the Sophie Kerr room of the Miller Library, John Vernon, novelist, poet, and memoirist, read from a selection of his works.

• October 30, 2006: Beckett Centenary Celebration, Part 3 of 4: Marjorie Perloff Presents "In Love With Hiding: Samuel Beckett's War"

  Marjorie Perloff, President of the Modern Language Association, lectured on October 30, at 4:30 p.m. in the Sophie Kerr Room of the Miller Library on "In Love With Hiding: Samuel Beckett's War." This was the third of four events in the college's Samuel Beckett Centenary Celebration.

  Read the press release here.

• October 24, 2006: Author and Scholar Maureen Howard Reads From Her Works

  On October 24th at 4:30p.m. in the Sophie Kerr room of the Miller Library, scholar and author Maureen Howard read from a selection of her works. Three of Howard's seven novels have been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award.

  Read the press release here.

• October 17-18, 2006: Actor and Writer David Prete Conducts Master Class: "Off the Page: The Art of Public Reading"

  Actor and writer David Prete conducted a master class to help the college's creative writers in developing the skills needed for an otherwise untended aspect of the literary life: public speaking. Prete teaches a graduate course on public reading technique at The New School in New York City, and is the author of "Say That to My Face."

  In his master class at Washington College, Prete gave students advice on proper public speaking techniques, applicable for daily life as well as for readings and speeches. The class culminated in the students and Prete giving a reading of their works on October 18th at 4:30p.m. in the Sophie Kerr room of the Miller Library.

  Read staff writer Alisha George's article in The Elm on this event.

• October 16, 2006: Beckett Centenary Celebration, Part 2 of 4: Renowned Actor Barry McGovern Reads Beckett

  On October 16th at 4:30p.m. in the Norman James Theater, renowned Irish actor Barry McGovern performed a one-man show of selections from several of Samuel Beckett's works, such as Waiting for Godot, Molloy, and The Unnamable. This was the second of four events in the college's Samuel Beckett Centenary Celebration.

  Read Johanna Schaeffer's article in The Elm on this event.

  Read the press release here.

• October 10, 2006: Author Larry Woiwode Reads From His Works

  On October 10th at 4:30p.m. in the Sophie Kerr room of the Miller Library, novelist Larry Woiwode read from his works. Woiwode, author of Beyond the Bedroom and Poppa John among others, has received awards from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He has also received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and the John Dos Passos Prize, and has been nominated for the National Book Award.

  Read the press release here.

• October 9, 2006: James Basker on "Why Literature Matters: Poets and the Abolition of Slavery"

  On October 9th at 4:30p.m. in the Casey Academic Center Forum, Washington College's Sophie Kerr Committee and the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presented "Why Literature Matters: Poets and the Abolition of Slavery," a lecture by James Basker, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of English, Barnard College, and President of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

  Read the press release here.

• September 25, 2006: Caroline Bicks on "Shaping Babies, Making Men: Midwives and the Politics of Birth in Shakespeare's Richard III"

  On September 25th at 4:30p.m. in the Sophie Kerr room of the Miller Library, Dr. Caroline Bicks, assistant professor of English at Boston College, lectured on "Shaping Babies, Making Men: Midwives and the Politics of Birth in Shakespeare's Richard III" as part of Washington College's Renaissance Lecture Series.

  Noting how, in William Shakespeare's play, King Richard III's tortured personality is ascribed to the popular myth of his tortured birth, Bicks discussed ways in which physiognomy impacted Richard III's reign and legacy as recorded both in history and in Shakespeare's play. Specifically, Bicks related the mythology surrounding Early Modern English midwifery to the mythology surrounding the source of Richard III's corruption.

  Bicks examined midwifery as the Early Modern English profession of molding children into proper "human clay" upon their birth. If a child was born deformed or emerged from the birth canal in an irregular fashion, the midwife was to blame. Bicks asserted that the mysteries of birth-- and of unnatural birth-- were used to conspire against Richard III's legacy, elevating his controversial personality and political reign to a supernatural level of illegitimacy.

  Bicks, at one time a professional actress, earned her Ph.D. at Stanford University has taught at Ohio State University and Stanford University as well as at Boston College. She is a scholar of Early Modern English drama and women writers, Elizabethan and Jacobean lyric and epic poetry, the history of science, and is the author of the forthcoming Ashgate Publishing book Midwiving Narratives in Shakespeare's England.

• September 19, 2006: Beckett Centenary Celebration, Part 1 of 4: Raymond Federman on "The Imaginary Museum of Samuel Beckett"

  On September 19th at 4:30p.m. in the Sophie Kerr room of the Miller Library, Raymond Federman opened Washington College's Samuel Beckett Centenary Celebration. Federman, author and poet in both French and English, spoke as both a scholar and personal friend of Beckett.

  Federman read exerpts from his recently published French-language memoir, Le Livre de Sam, in his lecture "The Imaginary Museum of Samuel Beckett," in which he discussed how Beckett's fixation on memorable imagery rather than conventional narrative plot devices render his plays into living museums of imaginary paintings. Federman described Beckett as a painter of the imagination, using words as his paintbrush, rather than as solely an artist of words and the stage.

  The lecture generated tremendous response among students and faculty alike, resulting in two separate articles in The Elm. See staff writer Alyse Bensel's article covering the event, and contributor Johanna Schaeffer's interview with Federman.

  Read the press release here.

• September 12, 2006: Poet Michael Collier Reads From His Works

  On September 12th at 4:30p.m. in the Sophie Kerr room of the Miller Library, acclaimed poet Michael Collier read from his collections Dark Wild Realm, The Ledge, The Neighbor, The Folded Heart, and The Clasp. Collier was the Poet Laureate of Maryland from 2001 to 2004.

  Read staff writer Alyse Bensel's article covering this event in The Elm.

  Read the press release here.

Visiting Writers

The following is a roll call of writers who have come to visit and speak at Washington College as a result of the Sophie Kerr program:

Sophie Kerr: A History

— William Thompson, 1970 Sophie Kerr Prize winner

For the Summer 1997 issue of Washington College Magazine

The Sophie Kerr Prize, the largest undergraduate prize in the nation, is given annually to the graduating senior who demonstrates the greatest "ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor." Last year's prize was worth over $53,000.

Despite her impressive creativity—she saw 23 novels, hundreds of short stories, and a cook book published during her lifetime—nothing author Sophie Kerr ever dreamed up has had the impact on lovers of literature as a pair of dry-as-talcum paragraphs buried deep within her last will and testament.

Sophie Kerr, founder of a literary legacy.

As anyone familiar with Washington College knows by now, the Eastern Shore native and New York City keeper of cats, who died in 1965 shy of her 85th birthday, designated the school a residuary beneficiary with a half-million-dollar trust fund. What caught College administrators momentarily dumbfounded a year later when they learned details of the bequest was Kerr's special stipulation that half the annual earnings from her estate be handed over to a graduating senior who demonstrates promising writerly instincts.

That part of the will was outlined briskly in a 91-word paragraph of legalese setting the terms of the Sophie Kerr Prize, soon to be recognized as the richest undergraduate cash award in the world. The late Dr. Nicholas Newlin, who was then chairman of the English Department, noted the enormity of the task he and he senior faculty colleagues faced in choosing the first recipient of Kerr's unusual largess. It was, he said, "a heavy, even alarming responsibility."

Three decades and more than $630,000 in checks later, the Sophie Kerr Prize remains the most familiar and, for some people, the most puzzling aspect of the woman's tribute to Washington College.

Less known but arguably having a greater effect on more people's lives is the second condition Kerr placed on her bequest. Overshadowed by the annual spring hoopla given the Prize is what the writer-turned-benefactress wanted to be called the Gift—the other half of the income generated by her endowment. Just as dry and twice as long as its counterpart, this section of the will sets aside a like sum of money to be spent at the discretion of the Kerr Committee—the College president and the English faculty—on student scholarships, library books, literary publications, and visiting writers and scholars.

Thanks to the continued Kerr funding of campus literary events, today Washington College offers a writer-friendly atmosphere that is the rival of schools much larger in size and endowment. Currently, the Kerr endowment is valued at $2.2 million and, for the most part, its purchasing power has kept up with the rate of inflation.

Since its inception, the Gift has made possible a parade of nearly 200 visiting authors, performers and scholars who otherwise might not have set foot on a small campus miles from the traditional literary circuit. Some of these individuals were famous by the time they arrived at the College. Some were ahead of their game and soon would attain literary stardom, winning Pulitzers and Nobels and writing best sellers. Some were shy, even phlegmatic. A few were boisterous and bent on challenging the students' own proclivities for raising hell. Most were gentle and warmly receptive to young writers who yearned for and got face-to-face encounters with the literati in the classroom and, later, in the campus literary house.

All this did not happen overnight and, in fact, it has beginnings on several fronts.

Almost immediately, school officials set out to comply with Kerr's wish that scholarships be set up in her name. The English Department currently awards three incoming freshmen each with $1,000. A recipient can receive the aid for four consecutive years, meaning that each year the Kerr Committee sets aside $12,000 for financial assistance. For the record, the first four students to receive Kerr scholarships were Susan Arnold, Bill Dunphy, Reed Hessler, and Susan Marie Wilson.

While 1968 found College President Daniel Z. Gibson and school administrators cautiously pondering the consequences of Kerr's bequest and its immediate monetary value—school officials determined the first Prize to be $5,000, the $7,500 and ultimately $9,000—at least one small group saw no need to curb its optimism. Students who controlled the literary magazine Miscellany predicted the Kerr endowment would help attract a higher caliber of undergraduate writers to the College. The long-term benefits, they believed, were obvious.

With the initiation of the senior literary prize awarded annually by the Sophie Kerr Committee, one student writer told the campus newspaper, "Miscellany could within a few years become one of the finest literary publications within the country."

By the fall of 1970, the Sophie Kerr Committee had awarded three of its prizes to graduating seniors, had given out a handful of scholarships, and was quickly becoming the major source of funding for student literary publications.

Miscellany ceased to exist and was succeeded by other publications, including the Washington College Review and a flurry of poetry broadsides which came out more frequently and were favored by many of the 47 students who had helped form the College Writers Union. The group, whose size marked the largest creative writing organization ever assembled at the school, was given a start-up grant of $1,750 by the Sophie Kerr Committee and another $400 by the Student Government Association.

Continuing to follow Kerr's wishes, the English Department also began dedicating a share of the estate earnings for book purchases and periodical subscriptions. In the mid-1980s, when the Kerr estate was marking its highest returns, the department set aside $10,500 a year—about 15 percent of the library's entire budget for new books—to buy titles recommended by its faculty. The department, acknowledging its unique funding position on campus, agreed to turn over its share of the general budget fund for books to the other academic departments.

Currently, each member of the English faculty can spend up to $500 a year for new books. As much as $2,000 a year is used to subscribe to magazines and English-related academic periodicals. Of course, all publications are available for use by anyone who uses the library.

Before long, student writers secured a building they would call their home away from home. Named Richmond House, the structure was a two-story former private residence on the lower end of campus. Part publications office, dormitory, and social center, the building served campus writers until it fell into disrepair and was razed some years later.

Student writers returned 'home' in 1985 when a large Victorian house hard by Route 213 was converted into a haven designed especially for them. The building, dubbed the O'Neill Literary House, was a gift of alumna Betty Brown Casey '47 and her husband Eugene B. Casey. It was not named for the famous playwright, but for Mr. Casey's mother, Rose O'Neill Casey.

Sophie Kerr: A History (continued)

— William Thompson, 1970 Sophie Kerr Prize winner

For the Summer 1997 issue of Washington College Magazine

The O'Neill Literary House is a center for readings and receptions and contains several garret rooms for senior writers. Two English faculty members have their offices there, as does the director of the Literary House Press at Washington College. A high-ceilinged extension was added to accommodate a collection of antique but functional handpresses operated by students under the watchful eye of master printer Mike Kaylor. While Richmond House had two resident felines (Chaucer and Odysseus), Edith Wharton, a black and white cat, allegedly manages the O'Neill Literary House.

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, interest in literary exercises had begun to spread across the campus. Faculty members offered to help budding writers and, in a demonstration of how unpatronizingly candid teachers could be, on instructor's appraisal of student work published in the literary magazine ended on this critical note: "Basically, I mean that those who contributed... are not yet finished poets and yet they are more concerned with self-expression than with study...."

At Washington College, even "not yet finished poets" find reward. Two of the student writers included in the critique went on to win the Sophie Kerr Prize, an experience dramatically in contrast with the lives of many accomplished authors who visit the campus courtesy of Sophie Kerr.

Take Joseph Brodsky, for example. Brodsky found refuge in the United States in 1972 after he served 18 months of a five-year prison term in the frozen tundra of his native Soviet Union. His crime? Writing poetry without academic qualifications.

Brodsky, who died of a heart attack in 1996 at age 55, found a more appreciative audience in the United States and his international stature as poet was recognized in 1987 when he was awarded a Nobel in literature. But, like many writers before and after him, his path to fame brought him to rural Chestertown. A small but enthusiastic crowd gathered inside the College's Norman James Theater to hear the man read, in his native tongue and unmistakable booming voice, many of the poems that would make him a cult figure.

The Sophie Kerr Lecture Series began in the spring of 1969 on a decidely scholarly note with the appearance of Frank Kermode, then the Winterstone Professor of English at the University of Bristol. Kermode, whose books and critical essays would later earn him chairs at four English universities and a knighthood, titled his evening lecture in Hynson Lounge "How Art Survives." Before leaving, he gave would-be writers in the crowd a bit of advice: "Redundancy," he said, "is the sin of novelists."

Kermode was followed in the fall by Polish drama critic Jan Kott, a respected academic whose book, Shakespeare, Our Contemporary, caught the attention of scholars trying to tmake the playwright's works meaningful to a generation of English students demanding so-called relevancy in their curriculum.

National Book Award winner and Library of Congress Poet-in-Residence William Stafford arrived in the fall of 1970, speaking to a large audience and then spending 20-minute sessions with individual student writers. It marked the beginning of a successful practice English teacher and Literary House director Robert Day says is to coax guest writers away from the lectern and into the throng of students who turn out to see them.

"The best visitors we have here are those who've accomplished a lot in their lives and who are willing to give parts of themselves to the student routine," says Day. "I count among them Gwendolyn Brooks, William Stafford, Anthony Burgess, and Edward Albee. Some of these people are famous beyond belief. They could have come and picked up their checks, given a reading, and hung out with the faculty. But a lot of these people buy into the contract that I try to make with every writer that they spend time with the students and the students' manuscripts as well."

Katherine Anne Porter's stay at the College proved that writers are greater than the sum of their publications. She talked shop with students, who found the 82-year-old novelist and short-story author to be genuine and charming. She confided that the emerald rings she wore were purchased with the money she had been paid a decade ago for movie rights to her well-known Ship of Fools.

"A friend asked me," she said, "if, at age 72, there wasn't something more I needed than emeralds. I told her I'd needed those emeralds since the day I was born. Holes in my shoes don't matter if I have emeralds."

Students aren't the only ones who have memorable encounters with the famous writers. Bennett J. Lamond of the English Department recalls Porter's anxiety over having discovered that she had forgotten her lipstick shortly before she was to attend a Sunday luncheon at a professor's house. Lamond offered to drive her to a Chestertown drug store and purchase her a stick of her choice.

"Oh," she demurred. "No man has ever bought me lipstick," she told him. Lamond quickly replied: "I bet you say that to all the boys." He may be the only man who ever bought lipstick for the great writer.

Perhaps the most memorable non-reading performance executed by a visiting author at the College was that of James Dickey, the poet and novelist whose book Deliverance had been made into a successful movie just about the time he came to campus. Although he spent a couple days instructing students in the classroom, his scheduled poetry reading one evening in Hynson Lounge impressed a large crowd in an unexpected way.

Dickey, who had a legendary affection for imbibing alcohol, showed up for the reading deep in his cups. He had tumbled and dirtied his sport coat outside Hynson, but made his way to the lectern unperturbed and began what was supposed to be an hour of poetry recitation. After 10 minutes had passed, Dickey peeked at his wristwatch and, apparently thinking he had read for 70 minutes, closed his book and walked out of the lounge.

Later that evening, Dickey showed up at a post-reading cocktail party at a professor's house. He was expected to engage in informal chit chat with students and faculty, but Dickey camped out by the lighted fireplace where he nuzzled an anonymous woman.

Just as abruptly as he had left Hynson Lounge, Dickey rose from his seat before the fireplace and headed toward the door. With the woman on one arm, he wobbled like a pork-fed penguin past the makeshift bar, tucked a fifth of booze under his other arm, and walked out of the door into the dark night. It was a deliverance that Dickey, who died this year at 73, still has people talking at Washington College.

Student writers, by now somewhat accustomed to having the great and near-great of the literary scene visit their world, have a way of showing their appreciation for a visitor's performance on campus. If they approve, they have the visitor's framed poster hung right-side up on the crowded walls of the O'Neill Literary House.

If they don't like a particular visitor.... Well, here's what happened when playwright Israel Horovitz came to campus recently to mingle with student writers and actors. Tipped off in advance of the students' sign of disapproval, Horovitz wrote this on his poster: "If you hang this upside down, you will get a disease."

Horovitz, who admitted that he goes to few college campuses, should not be upset with the students' judgement of his performance. You can read his poster without standing on your head.

The Sophie Kerr Prize

Sophie Kerr, a prolific and popular American writer of the early 20th century, has left an indelible literary mark at Washington College, where the gift she bequeathed 40 years ago enabled the College to bring to campus a succession of the nation's top writers, editors and scholars. Edward Albee, Joseph Brodsky, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mary Karr, Lucille Clifton, James McBride, Eamon Grennan, Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Pinsky, Charles Simic and Jane Smiley are just a few of the other literary heavyweights who have inspired and instructed the next generation of American writers at Washington College.

In addition to the Sophie Kerr Series, the Sophie Kerr Gift provides scholarships for students who show literary promise, pays for library books, and supports various literary activities. The result is a wonderfully vibrant intellectual culture where the literary arts thrive. For more information about upcoming events, refer to Sophie Kerr Lecture Series Events page.

The Sophie Kerr Prize is awarded each year to the graduating senior who has the best ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor. Valued at $67,481 in 2008, it is the nation's largest literary prize awarded solely to undergraduate students.

In the past, the prize has been awarded for both creative and critical writing alike. Student winners are chosen for their literary excellence, regardless of genre.

For graduating Washington College seniors, to learn more about preparing and submitting a portfolio for the Sophie Kerr Prize, click on "The Prize" and refer to the Sophie Kerr Manuscript Guidelines.

Sophie Kerr Manuscript Guidelines

If you plan to submit a manuscript for the Sophie Kerr Prize, your portfolio should adhere to the following guidelines:

Introductory Material should include:

• A coversheet including your name and the date.
• A table of contents.
• The Honor Code statement (any portfolio found to violate the Honor Code will be reported to the Dean's office. See the Important Note below).
• An introduction.

Format:

• All items should be in a single Word document, in their proper order.
• Insert page numbers (but no page number on the cover sheet).

Submission:

• Step 1: Print two hard copies for submission to the English Department. They must be in binders but good 3-ring notebooks (or similar) are acceptable. These must be delivered to Cindy Foster in SMITH 224 on or before noon on the last day of classes (Thursday, May 1, 2008).
• Step 2: Submit a complete electronic copy (final version) to Cindy Foster on or before the deadline. Send this by e-mail attachment to cfoster2@washcoll.edu.

Important Note: Plagiarism is a serious academic and professional offense. Any Sophie Kerr prize submission found to contain plagiarized material will be considered in violation of the Honor Code and will be reported to the Dean's office. The consequences for plagiarizing may include expulsion from Washington College. Washington College has contracted with Turnitin.com, a web-based plagiarism prevention service. Portfolios submitted for the Sophie Kerr Prize may be submitted electronically to Turnitin.com.