On Tuesday evening, Bwog Staff Writer Erika Avallone had the privilege of attending a discussion titled “Writers at Barnard: Olga Ravn and Joyelle McSweeney,” where the authors divulged the emotionality and honesty of their writing processes. The night was coated with catharsis and compassion, an unforgettable nod to humanity’s most authentic experience: motherhood.    

On Wednesday, Staff Writer Erika Avallone attended a talk where Kerri Arsenault, literary critic and author, discussed her best-selling work “Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains,” as part of Columbia University’s Nonfiction Dialogues series.

Erika Avallone, Bwog Staff Writer, attended the final event of this fall’s Writers at Barnard. Led by Creative Writing Director Jhumpa Lahiri, alumna and author Idra Novey gave a reading of her newest book, “Take What You Need,” and engaged in inquisitive conversation. 

The MacArthur Genius Grants have been awarded, and the west side of Broadway has something to smile about. Edwidge Danticat, BC ’90, was just awarded a Genius Grant for her novels depicting Haitian history and the Haitian immigrant experience.  In works such as The Farming of Bones (1999), The Dewbreaker (2004), and Brother, I’m Dying […]

Everyone’s favorite lottery process, also known as “Housing,” has begun, and the housing office announced two new SICs opening up next year. That’s Special Interest Communities, for you rising sophomores who haven’t looked them up during your desperate search for a single. On top of the seven others that will roll over from 2008 (there […]

After several application deadline postponements, our dead-tree friends at the Spec have finally chosen their new set of opinion columnists. Some old Bwog favorites have returned, some fresh faces have been added, and it’s not known who gets the Friday death slots. Anthony Kelley, CC ’09, who wrote what IvyGate called “The Batshittiest Spectator Column […]

Bwog daily editor Mariela Quintana peers into the insular, feminine world of insular, feminine authors on a Thursday night at Barnard. Yesterday evening, I crossed over to the other side of Broadway and made my way to across the Barnard quad to attend a reading hosted by Great Writers at Barnard Series featuring authors Myla […]

Astute tipster Helam Gebremariam, C ’07, said Yale’s class day speaker, Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek, was a “total Matt Fox knock off.” She writes: “He made all of the same jokes that Fox did about how Harvard got Gates and Yale got him. He ALSO called someone out (a la Julia Kite) for writing something […]

Bwog editor emerita Sara Vogel bumped into Jon Scieszka, one of her childhood heroes, on 112th street and Broadway a few weeks ago. When she found out that the author of The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales, Math Curse, and the Time Warp Trio series got his Master’s at Columbia in the […]

Gary Shteyngart wrote his first successful novel, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, during his senior year at Oberlin, and again embraced his Russian immigrant status with a second, Absurdistan. Only in his thirties, he’s now an adjunct professor in the MFA Writing Program. Dena Yago tracked him down to chat. So how has your class been this semester? […]

Bwog isn’t one to make fun of typos — we thing we dont have the rite — (just search “Carmen,” as in, the way we’ve chosen to spell our most beloved first-year dorm, to the left). But these guys should be held to a higher standard. This typographical oopsie-daisy appears on the FAQ website of […]

As you may or may not be aware, Orhan Pamuk, a visiting prof at our fair institution, just netted ol’ Alma another Nobel, this time for literature. Though there is some speculation as to what exactly Pamuk does around here, (this says he will have a MEALAC position, which is news to those who spend […]