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New
Jacobson Series Features Working Writers
 The
Jacobson Center for Teaching, Writing and Learning will complement
Smith’s writing curricula with a new series called “Working
Writers” that will invite professional writers to speak
on the craft of journalistic communication.
Intended as an educational seminar,
the series is expected to offer insights on how to write effectively
for magazines, newspapers and other popular media, and how
to achieve publication.
On the first Monday of each month,
beginning in October, the Jacobson Center will feature a different
speaker from the Smith community -- some from among Smith
faculty -- to expound on his or her genre of journalism.
The series, which is open to
the college community, will take place in Seelye 207 (Faculty
Lounge) from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served. Selections
from the featured genre will be available for review at the
Jacobson Center in the week prior to each event.
“Working Writers”
will kick off on Monday, October 3, with guest Andrew Zimbalist,
Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics, and author of 13 books
and numerous articles and opinion pieces in national media.
Zimbalist will reflect on writing the op-ed piece. His most
recent book, published last spring, is National Pastime:
How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays
Soccer.
On Monday, November 7, Madeleine
Blais, professor of journalism at UMass-Amherst, will offer
her comments on writing the biographical profile. Blais, a
former Boston Globe and Miami Herald reporter,
is a Pulitzer Prize-winner for feature writing. She has written
three books, including In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle,
a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award
in 1995.
The series continues on Monday,
December 5, with guest George Colt, who is currently teaching
in the American studies department. Colt, a journalist, poet
and playwright, will speak on writing the personal essay.
A former staff writer for Life magazine, Colt has
written two books, including The Big House: A Century
in the Life of an American Summer Home, a memoir, which
was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2003.
“Working Writers”
will continue in the spring with talks by Michael Gorra, Mary
Augusta Jordan Professor of English Language and Literature,
on writing book reviews; David Marcus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist who last year taught at Deerfield Academy, who
will speak on writing the “call-to-action” piece;
and local writer Pamela Petro, on travel writing.
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