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- Category:
- Entertainment & Arts - Books & Literature
- Description:
- SLS: the coolest international literary program in the world.
"SLS is one of the most exciting and important intellectual venues in the world right now; absolutely the most important seminar of its kind. Several of my Syracuse grad students have attended, and it was remarkable to see the transformation; in the course of one summer, they became more worldly, more sophisticated in seeking out and accepting literary influences; in short, their work became more mature, more big-hearted, more... (read more) - Privacy Type:
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Events
1 upcoming eventSee All
- SLS Kenya
Lamu and Nairobi, Kenya
Sunday, December 13 at 12:00pm
Summer Literary Seminars
JoinBasic Info
- Name:
- Summer Literary Seminars
- Category:
- Entertainment & Arts - Books & Literature
- Description:
- SLS: the coolest international literary program in the world.
"SLS is one of the most exciting and important intellectual venues in the world right now; absolutely the most important seminar of its kind. Several of my Syracuse grad students have attended, and it was remarkable to see the transformation; in the course of one summer, they became more worldly, more sophisticated in seeking out and accepting literary influences; in short, their work became more mature, more big-hearted, more... (read more) - Privacy Type:
- Open: All content is public.
Contact Info
- Email:
- Website:
- http://www.sumlitsem.org
- Office:
- LB 683.03, English Department, Concordia University
- Location:
- Montreal, QC
Recent News
- News:
- The Summer Literary Seminars organization --- www.sumlitsem.org -- is pleased to announce its 2010 programs in Montreal, Quebec, and Vilnius, Lithuania. Also on our 2010 agenda: SLS-Kenya (December). As always, SLS offers the unique and dynamic mix of literary and cultural programs, providing a movable platform of sorts, upon which the North-American and international writing communities can meet, and blending the writing workshops of the highest caliber anywhere in the world, led by some of the most interesting and accomplished among the contemporary writers, poets and playwrights, with its signature in-depth academic lecture series and cultural-immersion components. We would be very glad to see you being a part of one (or all) of our 2010 programs.
Montreal, North America’s gateway to Europe and a city of immensely rich cultural and literary history, marks SLS’s first program on this continent. Our faculty will include Padgett Powell, Martin Espada, Elizabeth Bachinsky, Lois Patrick Leroux, Chuck Klosterman, Kevin Canty, Douglas Messerli, and Mac Wellman, as well as an array of illustrious guest lecturers and readers, such as Robert Coover, Sam Lipsyte, Gary Shteyngart, Christopher Sorrentino and Deborah Treisman, among many others. We’ll also be featuring a number of Montreal, Quebec, and Canada’s most prominent writers, editors and academics, in a two-week program filled with cultural excursions and literary endeavours.
2010 will mark SLS’s second program in Vilnius, Lithuania. A city that is frequently referred to as “the new Prague” hosted an invigorating and insightful 2009 seminar, and we couldn’t be more excited to return. Our faculty there will include Mary Jo Bang, Laimonas Briedis, John Crowley, Joseph Kertes, Josisp Novakovich, Sina Queyras, Robin Romm, Darius Ross, Louis Sachar, Joseph Skibell, Darius Ross, Tomas Venclova, and Laima Vince -- with guests, lecturers, panelists and writers/poets in residence, such as: Jason Camlot, Laurynas Katkus, Kerry Keys, and Max Winter. The separate, self-contained program component, Jewish Lithuania, will be directed by the brilliant linguist and historian, Professor Dovid Katz (www.dovidkatz.net), one of the world’s leading authorities on the history and culture of the Jewish people of Eastern Europe. SLS-Lithuania-2010 will be an uncommonly rich, truly unique program, pulling into its fold also the guest writers and poets from Belarus, Russia and Poland. Lithuania is beautiful, as our participants will get a chance to see, and Vilnius is unrepeatable, wholly unlike any other city in Europe.
Details on our 2010 SLS-Kenya (and its subset, the Writing Kenya program) program will be forthcoming at a later date.
The 2010 Unified Literary Contest continues. It is held this year again in affiliation with Fence Magazine, with judges Mary Jo Bang (poetry) and Mary Gaitskill (fiction), and with winners in each category awarded a free trip to any of the SLS-2010 programs. A number of contest participants will receive special fellowship offers to join us a reduced tuition rate, so do enter early -- and often!
If you are interested in attending one of our 2010 programs, please check out all the details at www.sumlitsem.org, or contact Programs Coordinator Mike Spry, at mike@sumlitsem.org, or call 514-207-5272 x 4632.
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SLS is pleased to announce its 2010 unified (SLS-Montreal, SLS-Lithuania, and SLS-Kenya) literary contest, held this year again in affiliation with Fence Magazine.
We are excited this year to have Mary Gaitskill judging the contest fiction, and Mary Jo Bang judging the poetry.
Contest winners in the categories of fiction and poetry will have their work published in Fence, as well as the participating literary journals in Canada, Lithuania and Kenya. Additionally, they will have the choice of attending (airfare, tuition, and housing included) any of the SLS-2010 programs – in Montreal, Quebec (June 13 - 27); Vilnius, Lithuania (August 1 - 14); or Nairobi-Lamu, Kenya (December).
Second-place winners will receive a full tuition waiver for the program of their choice, and third-place winners will receive a 50% tuition discount.
A number of select contest participants, based on the overall strength of their work, will be offered tuition scholarships, as well, applicable to the SLS-2010 programs.
Contest Deadline: February 28, 2010.
Please vist the SLS website, at http://www.sumlitsem.org/slscontest.html, for the detailed information on how to enter.
Good luck, much success with your work -- and we hope to see some of you at one (or more) of our programs in the future!
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Lithuania 2009 Program in The Globe & Mail:
Faculty member Antanas Sileika's article "Putting the lit into Lithuania"
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/putting-the-lit-into-lithuania/article1275794/
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Notes on Vilnius
A local publication takes note of SLS Lithuania: http://www.lietuviams.com/index.php?user_sub_id=44&itemID=8890
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The 2009 Summer Literary Seminars-Kenya program (Nairobi-Lamu; December 13-28) is currently accepting applications. We invite you to visit the program’s website -- www.sumlitsem.org/kenya -- for all the details.
Since this is going to be our first SLS-Kenya program in three years, those who were offered SLS Literary Contest merit fellowships in the past -- between 2005-2009 – can apply them to this year’s program. Former SLS participants are eligible for a partial tuition waiver.
This is going to be our largest SLS-Kenya program to date – a unique program, the only one of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, presenting its participants with a chance to work with some of the most interesting North-American and East-African writers and see the endlessly complex and fascinating country of Kenya “from within,” as it were: in close contact with the local literary and artistic community.
Indeed, as is the case with all of our programs, SLS-Kenya is developed in close cooperation with the local writers, artists and scholars.
This year, for the first time, in addition to our "general" SLS program, and in parallel with it, we offer a wholly new, self-contained two-week lecture/cultural immersion course, called SLS-Writing Kenya and directed by the managing editor of our long-term partner, the seminal and groundbreaking Kwani? literary journal, Billy Kahora -- an old friend of the SLS program, and one of the country’s most talented and accomplished young writers and journalists.
SLS-Writing Kenya will feature talks, lectures, discussions, guided tours presented, both in Nairobi and on the island of Lamu, by a number of Kenya's, and indeed East Africa's, leading writers, poets, artists, literary scholars, editors, musicians and filmmakers of the new generation.
An option for those who do not necessarily feel the need to sign up for writing workshops, SLS-Writing Kenya will have a separate (lower) tuition: $1111US ($1280CAN). However, merit scholarships, offered through the SLS Literary Contest, can only be applied to the general, "literary" SLS-Kenya program.
Still, those enrolling in the “general” SLS-Kenya, will be able to take SLS-Writing Kenya as an afternoon option, and avail themselves of the large segment of its offerings.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, at mike@sumlitsem.org or sls.contest@gmail.com.
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SLS is the only writing seminar of its kind in the world, with programs running and upcoming in St. Petersburg, Russia; Nairobi-Lamu, Kenya; Vasto, Abruzzo, Italy; and Vilnius, Lithuania. More are coming in '10... Writing workshops of the highest order, offbeat lectures and, yes, unique cultural experiences... Among the past and present faculty: George Saunders and Robert Creeley, Padgett Powell and Robert Coover, Denis Johnson and Jayne Anne Phillips, Francine Prose and Binyavanga Wainaina, Billy Collins and Robert Hass, C.K. Williams and Phillip Lopate, William Vollmann and William Meredith and Jonathan Ames, Kim Addonizio and Kevin Canty, Ron Carlson and Amy Bloom, Jim Shepard and Gary Shteyngart, Sam Lipsyte and Chris Sorrentino, and many, many, many others.
Academic credit is available through Concordia University Information can be found at www.sumlitsem.org or by contacting Programs Coordinator Mike Spry at 514.848.2424 ext. 4632, or mike@sumlitsem.org.