Covid and Literature February 10th, 2024 at 2:30PM Past Event Watch the video » Fractured: Covid 19 – Memento Mori vs. Memento Vivere; “COVID-19 Betrays America’s Cult of Curdled Optimism”; This Exquisite Loneliness; The Lonely Stories; 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed; The Quarantine Tapes; these titles were all attempts by our panelists to endure and make sense of the Pandemic. “Each of us adrift on our own ghost ships,” wrote one of them, Simon Critchley, in a piece called “To Philosophize is to Learn How to Die.” Another, Richard Deming, observed that “the writing life, the life of the mind, is not an escape or separation from life, but the way of engaging it, head on, no matter the weather.” This Round Table will focus on the literature that emerged from that time which – to be sure – is not yet over. *Titles by these authors will be available to purchase at the event. Participants: Simon Critchley Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research View Papers / Presentations » Simon Critchley is Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Onassis Foundation. His books include Very Little…Almost Nothing (1997), Infinitely Demanding (2007), The Book of Dead Philosophers (2009) and The Faith of the Faithless (2012). He has also writtena novella, Memory Theatre (2015), a book-length essay, Notes on Suicide (2020) and studies of David Bowie, Football and Apply-Degger (Onassis, 2020). More recent books areTragedy, The Greeks and Us (Pantheon, 2019) and Bald (Yale,… read more » Richard Deming Poet & Critic View Papers / Presentations » Richard Deming is an award-winning poet and critic, whose work explores the intersections of literature, philosophy, and visual culture. He is the author of six books, including This Exquisite Loneliness (Viking, 2023), Day for Night (Shearsman, 2016) and Art of the Ordinary (Stanford UP, 2018). He teaches in the English Department at Yale University, where he is Director of Creative Writing. Eric Klinenberg Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences, New York University Director, Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University View Papers / Presentations » Eric Klinenberg is the Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He is the author of 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed, Palaces for the People, Going Solo, Heat Wave, and Fighting for Air, and coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Modern Romance. In addition to… read more » Daphne Merkin Novelist & Critic Daphne Merkin is a novelist and critic who has made a name for herself with her often-unnerving candor and forthright attitude towards issues of family, religion, money, and sex as well as her ability to straddle the High/Low cultural divide. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked in book publishing for six years as first… read more » Maria G. Pisano Book Artist, Printmaker, Curator & Educator View Papers / Presentations » Maria G. Pisano is a book artist, printmaker, curator and educator and publishes her work under the Memory Press imprint. Memory Press works are represented in The Library of Congress, 9-11 Memorial Museum, National Library of Medicine, Columbia University, New York Public Library, Stanford University and many more. She has exhibited widely. Her book Caudex Folium is… read more »
Simon Critchley Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research View Papers / Presentations » Simon Critchley is Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Onassis Foundation. His books include Very Little…Almost Nothing (1997), Infinitely Demanding (2007), The Book of Dead Philosophers (2009) and The Faith of the Faithless (2012). He has also writtena novella, Memory Theatre (2015), a book-length essay, Notes on Suicide (2020) and studies of David Bowie, Football and Apply-Degger (Onassis, 2020). More recent books areTragedy, The Greeks and Us (Pantheon, 2019) and Bald (Yale,… read more »
Richard Deming Poet & Critic View Papers / Presentations » Richard Deming is an award-winning poet and critic, whose work explores the intersections of literature, philosophy, and visual culture. He is the author of six books, including This Exquisite Loneliness (Viking, 2023), Day for Night (Shearsman, 2016) and Art of the Ordinary (Stanford UP, 2018). He teaches in the English Department at Yale University, where he is Director of Creative Writing.
Eric Klinenberg Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences, New York University Director, Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University View Papers / Presentations » Eric Klinenberg is the Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He is the author of 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed, Palaces for the People, Going Solo, Heat Wave, and Fighting for Air, and coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Modern Romance. In addition to… read more »
Daphne Merkin Novelist & Critic Daphne Merkin is a novelist and critic who has made a name for herself with her often-unnerving candor and forthright attitude towards issues of family, religion, money, and sex as well as her ability to straddle the High/Low cultural divide. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked in book publishing for six years as first… read more »
Maria G. Pisano Book Artist, Printmaker, Curator & Educator View Papers / Presentations » Maria G. Pisano is a book artist, printmaker, curator and educator and publishes her work under the Memory Press imprint. Memory Press works are represented in The Library of Congress, 9-11 Memorial Museum, National Library of Medicine, Columbia University, New York Public Library, Stanford University and many more. She has exhibited widely. Her book Caudex Folium is… read more »