NYU SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES CENTER FOR PUBLISHING & APPLIED LIBERAL ARTS CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAMS (PALA/CE)

Continuing Education Programs in Publishing, the Humanities, Arts, Producing, Design, Writing, and Translation.

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Margaret Atwood’s Top Five Writing Tips

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Legendary writer Margaret Atwood decided she wanted to be a writer when she was just sixteen years old, a goal she pursued in spite of the lack of formal creative writing classes available in 1950s Canada. She recalls, “I just started doing it and it was more fun than anything, so I changed career paths. I switched from science to writing and everybody thought I was mad.” In an interview with Young Ambassadors Emily Webb and Grace Murray from the National Centre for Writing, Atwood lists her top five tips for writers which, despite being specifically geared towards young writers, are relevant to those of all ages and levels of experience.
 
1. Get a notebook: And carry it with you everywhere! Make a habit of jotting down anything that comes into your head that you have even the slightest inkling you might find useful later. 
 
2. Read a lot and read critically: All writers begin by being readers, and all writers in the history of writing have learned from other writers. As you read, take the time to figure out what you like and don’t like about what you’re reading and why. 
 
3. Pay attention to your posture: A practical but invaluable tidbit of advice, especially for writers in the digital age. ‘Keyboarding’ is hard on the neck, and will take a toll on the body over time. As Margaret notes, “…it’s hard to write when you’re in agonizing pain!” 
 
4. Writer’s block? Go for a walk or go to sleep: Sometimes all you need is a little time away from the thing you are writing. When you allow yourself, and your brain, time and space to think about something else, or about nothing, the answer(s) you are looking for will probably come to you. 
 
5. Don’t be afraid to throw things out: Treat nothing preciously when you are writing and allow yourself to make mistakes. Margaret reminds us all that when we are writing, no one is seeing it except for the writer, so there is no need to worry about what anyone else might think. 
 
Learn to apply Atwood’s tips and many more to your own work—be it a novel, personal essay, article, or memoir. Sign up for one of our Writing courses this Fall!
 
WRIT1-CE9113001 Multimedia Storytelling
WRIT1-CE9531001 Interviews and Profiles
WRIT2-CS9002001 Jump-Start Your Novel

Upcoming Event—Authoring Advocacy: Bearing Witness in an Era of Mass Incarceration

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What is the responsibility of writers to confront our era of mass incarceration, and how do we bear witness without assuming voyeuristic or exploitative perspectives? Join PEN America for a reading featuring 2018 PEN America Writing For Justice Fellows Justin Rovillos Monson and Reginald Dwayne Betts, and Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Witness Program writers Roshan Abraham, Christina Olivares, & Sarah Wang. A closing conversation will explore the ethics, challenges and necessity of writing about mass incarceration from a variety of perspectives and lived experiences.

Friday, November 1, 2019 | 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 West 27th Street #600, New York, NY 10001

RSVP Here:
eventbrite.com/e/authoring-advocacy-bearing-witness-in-an-era-of-mass-incarceration-tickets-74336094259
($5 Suggested Donation)

Art for Everyone, Art for the Planet- NYC This Week

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Are you looking for interesting opportunities to look at, think about,  buy, and even make art this weekend and this coming week? Several important events are taking place that will expose you to new artists and new ideas. 

Mauricio Morillas, Ocean Deep #2

The Affordable Art Fair, NYC’s highly anticipated biannual fair where visitors can purchase original art for as little as $100, is open  Saturday the 28th (today) until 8pm and Sunday the 29th until 5pm. 

Join the NYU SPS Center for Applied Liberal Arts on Thursday, October 3rd for our free event  “I Am” Artists’ Workshop- Environmental Justice, where artists will showcase their spoken word, dance, music, film and visual art works. 

@woolpunk

The Art and Social Activism Festival continues through October with exhibits, performances,  hands-on workshops, and an “activism market” that highlights the work of socially engaged artists, makers, and designers. The theme for the 2019 festival is “Dignity: Care for Each Other and Our Planet.”

Thornton Dial. Life in Yellow Jungle (close up)

Those interested in digging deeper into the work of emergent artists outside of the mainstream and the growing genre of outsider art (which has its own fair in NYC in January 2020) may consider the course Inside “Outsider Art”: New Collectors, New Exhibits, where students have the opportunity to experience curator-led tours of museums and see art in collectors’ private homes as well as speak to art experts from Christie’s and elsewhere. 

NYU SPS Curated Lectures on September 6th

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The Fall 2019 edition of Curated Lectures will kick off on September 6th with a keynote presentation by architectural historian, author, and  CALA instructor Francis Morrone. Next, students can choose from a menu of hour-long lectures held during three breakout sessions.  Presentations are delivered by NYUSPS faculty members, as well as by renowned guest lecturers, including authors, architects, historians, and others. Don’t miss this unique learning experience that brings together the vast array of subject matter offered at NYUSPS.  To get more information on the day’s schedule and to register, click here.

Announcing NYU SPS CALA’s Fall 2019 Film Series: Environmental Films Around the World

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Join the Center for Applied Liberal Arts at NYU SPS and our academic partners  for a new film series that takes a look at the environment. The series is held in conjunction with CALA’s film studies courses this semester. Each screening  includes an introduction and post-film discussion led by a distinguished scholar.  See below for more information and RSVP here: TINYURL.COM/CALAFILMFA19

Series description:

FRAGILE EARTH: ENVIRONMENTAL FILMS AROUND THE WORLD
This international film series addresses today’s most pressing environmental issues. From population growth and urbanization to climate change, the films in this series present different perspectives on the biggest threats to the environment and reflect on possible solutions and pathways for a sustainable future for the planet and its inhabitants.

EARTH
Dir. Nikolaus Geyrhalter (Austria, 2019)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 6-9PM
DEUTSCHES HAUS AT NYU
42 Washington Mews, NYC
Introduction: Nandini Thiyagarajan

Several billion tons of earth are moved annually by humans – with shovels, excavators or dynamite. Earth observes people, in mines, quarries and at large construction sites, engaged in a constant struggle to take possession of the planet.

WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE
Dir. Heidi Brandenburg & Mathew Orzel
(Peru/USA/UK, 2016)
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 6-9PM
KING JUAN CARLOS I CENTER
53 Washington Square S., NYC
Introduction: Odi Gonzales

An indigenous environmental activist takes on the large businesses that are destroying the Amazon.

MORE THAN HONEY
Dir. Markus Imhoof (Germany, 2012)
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 6-9PM
NYU WOOLWORTH BUILDING
15 Barclay St., NYC
Introduction:  Prof. Mechthild Feist & Markus Imhoof

 An in-depth look at honeybee colonies in California, Switzerland, China and Australia.

DEMAIN
(Tomorrow)
Dir. Cyril Dion & Mélanie Laurent (France, 2015)
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 6-9PM
MAISON FRANCAISE
16 Washington Mews, NYC            Introduction: Leonard Cortana & Daniella Gitlin

Climate is changing. Instead of showing all the worst that can happen, this documentary focuses on the people suggesting solutions and their actions.

Moderator Bios

Nandini Thiyagarajan is a Faculty Fellow of Environmental and Animal Studies at New York University. Her current research  looks at the relationship between migration, race, animals, and climate change. Nandini teaches in the Department of Environmental Studies at NYU, which offers a major and minor in Environmental Studies and a minor in Animal Studies at the undergraduate level, as well as a master’s degree in Animal Studies. The department offers a wide range of courses covering all sectors of environmental science, from ecology and climate science, to policy-making and social justice. It recently launched the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection (CEAP), the first of its kind to engage both faculty and students in research around environmental and animal studies.

Odi Gonzales is a native Quechua speaker, researcher, translator, professor and poet. He has published several scholarly books, and a dictionary in the field of Quechua Oral Tradition, Latin American literature, and many multilingual collections of poetry. In 1992 he received The Peruvian National Poetry Award “César Vallejo”. Recently his book La escuela de Cusco translated by American poet and professor Lynn Levin, was published in the bilingual edition Birds on the kiswar tree (New York, 2Leaf Press, 2016)
He has led the Quechua Language and Culture Program at New York University since 2008.

Mechthild Feist is a Clinical Professor for Digital Communications and Media (NYU-SPS). She teaches courses in Motion Design, Engaged Media and Media history.Building on fine arts and history studies in Berlin, Mechthild has worked in digital media since her DAAD graduate grant (MFA) and Whitney-ISP Fellowship brought her to New York. She worked as an artist and award-winning designer for major studios (Editel, HBO, ARRI-Munich) and artists such as Alexander Kluge and Ornette Coleman.

Markus Imhoof is a Swiss writer and director, known for Das Boot ist voll (1981), More Than Honey (2012) and Eldorado (2018).   He studied German Literature, Arts and History in Zurich and attended the film program at the Zurich Academy of Arts. Two of his first documentaries were prohibited in Switzerland, but won multiple awards. In 1981, his feature film Das Boot ist voll won a Silver Bear at the Berlinale and was nominated for the Oscar. His film More than Honey is the most successful Swiss documentary of all time. Imhoof is member of the Academy of Arts Berlin, the European Film Academy,  and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in Los Angeles. 
 

Leonard Cortana s a PhD Candidate at the Cinema Studies Department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, an adjunct instructor at the Center for Applied Liberal Arts at NYU SPS, and a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. He teaches courses in international and French film history.  Cortana is also a filmmaker currently touring in festivals a documentary about activist movements spreading the intersectional legacy of Afro-Brazilian activist and politician Marielle Franco, murdered last year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Daniella Gitlin is a PhD candidate in NYU’s Comparative Literature Department pursuing a Certificate in Media and Culture. Her dissertation revolves around documentary media from mid-20th-century that responds to grave injustice. Daniella sits on the board of and helps run Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria, a nonprofit, bilingual community bookshop in Washington Heights staffed predominantly by volunteers.

Upcoming Women in Translation Month Event: Sevinç Türkkan, Ann Goldstein & Jenny McPhee, and Inea Busnaq in Conversation

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August is Women in Translation month (#WiTMonth), an initiative started by Biblibio blogger Meytal Radzinski in 2014 to shine light on writing and translations by women and work toward gender parity in literary publishing. Pen America is rounding out the month with an event which will showcase the work of translators and authors—including CALA Director and Clinical Assistant Professor of Translation, Jenny McPhee—while highlighting the importance of gender parity for free expression.

Join Pen America for a reading and discussion with women translators of women writers working in Turkish, Italian, and Arabic: Sevinç Türkkan (The Stone Building and Other Places, by Aslı Erdoğan); Ann Goldstein and Jenny McPhee (Neapolitan Chronicles, by Anna Maria Ortese); and Inea Bushnaq (Pearls on a Branch, by Najla Khoury).

Organized under the aegis of the PEN America Translation Committee, the event will be moderated by Jenny Wang Medina (assistant professor of Korean literature, Emory University) and Alex Zucker (translator of Czech literature).

WOMEN IN TRANSLATION MONTH: SEVINÇ TÜRKKAN, ANN GOLDSTEIN & JENNY MCPHEE, AND INEA BUSHNAQ

Thursday, August 22, 2019 | 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
McNally Jackson Books
New York, NY
52 Prince Street, New York, NY 10012
mcnallyjackson.com/

Sevinç Türkkan teaches modern Turkish literature and intellectual history at the University of Rochester. Her translation of The Stone Building and Other Stories was a finalist for the 2019 PEN Translation Award. She is coeditor (with David Damrosch) of Approaches to Teaching the Works of Orhan Pamuk, and is currently writing a book titled Translation Criticism and the Construction of World Literature.

Ann Goldstein has translated The Neapolitan Novels and other works by Elena Ferrante, as well as writings by Primo Levi, Giacomo Leopardi, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. She is the former head of the copy department at The New Yorker.

Jenny McPhee has translated works by Giacomo Leopardi, Primo Levi, Natalia Ginzburg, Paolo Maurensig, and Pope John Paul II.

Inea Bushnaq is a Palestinian-American writer and translator born in Jerusalem. After the Partition of Palestine in 1948, the family moved to England, where she received most of her schooling, and a degree in classics from Cambridge University. She now lives in New York City.

Interested in furthering or pursuing a career in translation?

Apply for our online M.S. in Translation program, which is available in four language pairs: French to English, Spanish to English, English to Spanish, and Chinese to English.

Registration is also open for our five-course, online Certificate in Translation Industry Essentials! This comprehensive certificate—available for all language pairs—will provide an overview of translation concepts and techniques, as well as hands-on training in the translation of documents from a wide range of fields: financial, commercial, legal, and other topics pertinent to today’s market.

CALA Staff Member Anne Maguire Discusses Barbara Hammer’s History Lessons at Whitney Museum Screening

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This past week, CALA staff member Anne Maguire was a featured panelist at the Whitney Museum’s screening and discussion of Barbara Hammer’s History Lessons. In the film, which was originally released in 2000, Barbara Hammer reclaims and rewrites lesbian history through her playful but empowering manipulation of a vast array of archival footage, drawn from popular films, newsreels, sex ed pics, stag reels, medical and educational films, old nudies, and more.  Anne played a central role in the creation of the film as its archival researcher; the clips she collected throughout her time working at the Prelinger Archive make up a majority of the images seen in the film. Anne was also used as what she calls the “ghostly archivist” who is referenced throughout the film.

The screening was followed up by a panel discussion featuring Anne as well as three of the film’s actors: Carmelita Tropicana, Mo B. Dick, and Jane Fine. The conversation was moderated by Matt Wolf, one of the guest curators for the 2019 Whitney Biennial film program.

Check out some pictures from the evening below. To learn more about the film and where you can find it, visit Barbra Hammer’s website: http://barbarahammer.com/films/history-lessons/ 

From One Artist to Another: The Art of Collage at Atlantic Gallery

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Stefanie Russell, Meera Thompson, and Paul Katcher

The Atlantic Gallery in Chelsea’s Landmark Arts Building is managed by the artists it represents. The annual show, “Connections,” gives member artists the opportunity to invite guest artists and “emphasizes the bonds between artist-friends who share thoughts about their work, communicate through their work, and admire and appreciate each other’s work.”

Meera Thompson

This year, one of the featured partnerships is between member artist and longtime CALA instructor Meera Thompson, whose work is shown alongside creative collage pieces by artists and former students Stefanie Russell and Paul Katcher.

Stefanie Russell

For Stefanie Russell, who in addition to being an artist is a respected professor and dental surgeon, the initial appeal of collage was its accessibility. Collage can be less intimidating to a beginner than drawing or painting. However, it does serve as a stepping stone to other art forms by helping a person develop a sense of color, composition, and think about expressing concepts through images. 

Paul Katcher

For Paul Katcher, a longtime photographer, the hands-on approach to repurposing and manipulating materials delivers an analog engagement in an increasingly digital art world. Flea markets, craft shops, collected pieces of nature, and even leisurely eBay searching are all sources for material to preserve history, tell new stories, or simply make aesthetically pleasing compositions. He finds the process altogether meditative, informative and energizing.

Stefanie Russell

On the opening night of Connections IV, Meera confided to us that she is never more herself than when she is making art.  If you’re curious to explore your own creativity through collage, this article on Artsy can give you some tips to get you started. Those interested in developing their artistic skills under Meera’s mentorship have the opportunity to take her Fall 2019 course, Introduction to Drawing. 

Connections IV is on view at the Atlantic Gallery through August 3rd.  

(all photos courtesy of Paul Katcher) 

 Other Fall 2019 courses of interest:

Studio Art

Photography

Art History 

Attend the Fall 2019 Noncredit Info Session on Wednesday, July 31st!

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Come learn about all of CALA’s exciting course offerings and Certificate programs in the arts, humanities, languages, film & television, translation & interpreting, publishing, and more at the upcoming Fall 2019 Noncredit Information Session.

The session will take place on Wednesday, July 31st from 5:30-7:00pm in the 5th floor lounge at 7 East 12th Street. 

 

Fall 2019 Courses Now Open for Registration

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Eric Sacco (CALA student), Center of Washington Square,View of Freedom Tower, 2018

Students can now visit the NYU School of Professional Studies’ noncredit website to view and register for classes starting in September.  The Center for Applied Liberal Arts’ in-house subject specialists will also be present at the NYU SPS information session on July 31st to answer questions and give you more information on our different programs.  You may also call us at 212-998-7272 to speak to an academic advisor or e-mail us at sps.cala@nyu.edu. To register for a course, contact registration services at 212-998-7200 or register online.  A browsable PDF copy of CALA’s course catalog is available here. 

Fall 2019 Courses : 

Arts  – studio art, art history & architecture, photography, arts administration,appraisal studies, fashion, art business

Design – 3D design and product development, graphic design

Film – filmmaking and producing, film studies, film and tv writing, audio and visual effects  

Humanities – history, literature, philosophy & religion, theater, music, acting, communication, New York City metropolitan studies

Languages– Mandarin, Japanase, Greek, Spanish, French, Swedish and more

Publishing – editing, book publishing, magazine and website publishing

Translation and Interpreting – legal, medical, simultaneous, consecutive, transcreation, literary media

Writing and Communications– professional writing, journalism, creative nonfiction, fiction & poetry, writing for screen and stage

Certificates

Arts Management

Copyediting, Proofreading, and Fact-Checking

Filmmaking

Effective Business Writing

Historic Preservation 

Journalism and News Writing

Storytelling: Narrative Tools and Applications

Television and Screenwriting

Translation Industry Essentials