FICTION
 With Joyce Winslow Discover the stories by Tillie Olsen and Grace Paley that changed the direction of American fiction with their unique female voices. Emphasis on the writing techniques in these stories that you can emulate in your own work. Four Thursdays: September 14, 21, 28 and October 5 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
 With Victoria Pedrick In this course, you can read classical Greek texts about a sex worker on trial, a war prize under attack, and an enigmatic concubine befriended by Socrates and beloved by Pericles, Athens’ greatest statesman. Each text opens a window on the seamier, more tainted effects of women whose place in the social world of the ancient polis brings them into alarmingly close alignment with men of honor. Three Tuesdays: October 3, 10, and 17 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
 With Carrie Callaghan Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Sentence, is both an unflinching look at contemporary events and a deeply-felt love letter to books, bookstores, and readers. Erdrich's career now spans nearly forty years, and this class will compare her debut novel, Love Medicine with her latest. Join me as we take a close look at each of these books and then discuss what the novels suggest about each other. Two Sundays: October 15 and 22, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET Online
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 With Leigha McReynolds This seminar-style, discussion-based class will read R. F. Kuang’s dark academia novel Babel to explore how speculative history can illuminate the complex relationship between imperialism and the violence of colonialism and the complexity and power of language. Two Mondays: October 16 and 23 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
 With Joanna Davis-McElligatt In this course we will read two novels that critics often discusses in kind—William Faulkner’s 1930 novel As I Lay Dying, set in his fictional Yoknapatawpha County, and Jesmyn Ward’s 2017 novel Sing, Unburied, Sing, set in her fictional town of Bois Sauvage—and explore together how their visions of the South are complementary and divergent, dissimilar and convergent, distinct and cooperative. Four Thursdays: October 5, 12, 19, and 26 from 6:30 p.m to 8:30 p.m. ET Online |
 With Sean Blink Ready to go beyond Anna Karenina and War & Peace? Join Yale Ph.D. Sean Blink for an exploration of Leo Tolstoy’s masterful novellas. Six Wednesdays: September 20, October 4, 18, November 1, 15, 29 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET Online |
 With Michael F. Moore Join Michael F. Moore – author of the “vigorous and companionable translation” (WSJ) of Alessandro Manzoni's The Betrothed – to read and discuss the first and greatest modern Italian novel. Giuseppe Verdi dedicated his supreme composition, the Requiem Mass, to Manzoni, and said “This is not just a book; it offers consolation to the whole of humanity.” Four Tuesdays meeting bi-weekly: September 19, October 3, 17, and 31, from 6 to 8 p.m. ET Online |
 With Johannes Lichtman Join novelist and National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree Johannes Lichtman to discuss twenty-first century expat novels that reimagine our conception of Americans abroad. Four Mondays: October 16, 23, 30, and November 6, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
 With Janet Hulstrand In this class we will explore poverty in America through three classic works of American literature, and one anthology of poetry, essays, and excerpts of longer works. In all of these works we’ll have the opportunity to better understand those who have struggled against the odds to pull themselves up “by their bootstraps”—and will see just how difficult that can be. Five Thursdays: September 21, and October 5, 19, and November 2, 9, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET Online |
 With Brittany Kerfoot How much has life really improved for women since the 1950s? Juxtaposing the bestselling novels Lessons in Chemistry and When Women Were Dragons with the modern memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, this class will discuss the evolution of the woman’s place in the home, the workplace—and the modern novel. Three Thursdays: November 2, 9 and 16 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
 With Verlyn Flieger J. R. R. Tolkien’s two great essays, “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” and “On Fairy-stories” embody the opposing dark and light poles of his worldview. Join Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger to unpack the essays in Tolkien's major works: The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Four Sundays: October 29, November 5, 12, 19 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET Online |
 With Christopher Griffin Irish Drama: Late 20th Century will explore Irish theatre after the founding geniuses of the Abbey Theater. After Sean Casey's outstanding Dublin trilogy of the 1920s, Teresa Deevy was one of the most successful playwrights of the 1930s. In our anthology we will read from plays such as Brendan Behan's The Quare Fella; Samuel Beckett's most Irish play, All That Fall; Hugh Leonard's Da; and Brian Friel's Translations. Four Fridays: November 3, 10, 17, and December 1 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
 With Peter Grybauskas Join scholar Peter Grybauskas in exploring how an English defeat against Vikings in August 991 inspired J.R.R. Tolkien’s scholarship, his only published play, and even some aspects of The Lord of the Rings. Three Sundays: December 3, 10, 17 from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. ET Online |
 With Nicole Miller This holiday season, join us for three evenings of spine-tingling phantom tales by master storytellers, phantom tales as we page through dozens of masterpieces by heart-warming and spine-tingling Victorian storytellers, including A Christmas Carol, “The Signalman,” “The Jolly Corner,” “The Private Life,” “All Souls”, “Bewitched” and “Pomegranate Seeds.” Three Mondays: December 4, 11, and 18 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
POLITICS & PLACE
 With Joseph Hartman Join us for a one-night discussion of the United States Supreme Court this October as the Court begins its 2023-24 term. We’ll cover key decisions from the 2022-2023 term and preview of some of the high-profile cases set for argument on the Court’s fall docket. Thursday, October 12, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in The Den Coffeehouse at the Connecticut Ave location. |
POETRY
 With Christopher Griffin Patrick Kavanagh is one of the three greatest Irish poets; he was the main link between W. B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney, but his poems are more accessible. He celebrated and criticized his life as a farmer in County Monaghan and as a struggling writer in Dublin. This class will explore some of Kavanagh’s best poems, along with recordings and visuals. Four Fridays: September 22, 29, and October 6, 13 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
 With Indran Amirthanayagam Explore the world of poet Derek Walcott, mapmaker, painter, namer of the flora and fauna and people of the islands in the Caribbean Sea. Three Tuesdays: November 28 and December 5, 12 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST ET Online |
 With Frank Ambrosio For those willing to undertake the steep ascent of Dante’s seven-story Mountain, nowhere in the legacy of human culture is the process of becoming a “whole person” more closely observed or rendered with deeper psychological and social insight than in the cantos of Dante’s Purgatorio. It is certainly possible to read, understand and enjoy Purgatorio without having read the Inferno. Six Thursdays: November 2, 9, 16, [skip 23 - no class], 30, and Dec 7, 14, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. ET Online |
MEDITATION & PHILOSOPHY
 With Reuben Jackson Join poet and musician Reuben Jackson to explore Paul Simon's new recording "Seven Psalms" a characteristically wry, moving, and arresting 33-minute meditation on faith and mortality. According to article in Variety Magazine, the words came to the 81-year-old singer-songwriter in a "dream space." "This is a journey for me to complete. This whole piece is really an argument with myself about belief or not." Our class will explore the richness contained within the recording's 7 movements, as well as look at (and listen to) earlier songs in which these themes appeared. One Sunday, October 22nd from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Hybrid Class: In-person and Online |
 With Jerry Webster Using the remarkable and unexpected lives of Ruth Ozeki and Issan Dorsey as models, this class will show how sometimes highly unlikely individuals can become our paragon for a meditative life. Four Wednesdays: November 29, and December 6, 13, 20 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET Online |
WRITING
 With Kate Reed Petty Participants will leave this all-levels writing workshop with new skills in building suspense and tension in their fiction or memoir work (in any genre). Through in-class writing exercises and close-read examples, we'll examine how concepts of character, pacing, and drama are vital to a ticking time bomb. Participants will also have the opportunity to submit their writing, which may be selected for an in-class workshop. Four Tuesdays: October 3, 10, 17, and 24 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET Online |
 Randon Billings Noble Winter can be a hard season both literally and metaphorically. But it’s also a good time to look inward. In this class we’ll use Katherine May’s book Wintering as a jumping off point to do a series of writing exercises that will show us different ways of looking at and living through the coldest season. One Wednesday: November 1 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
 With María Fernanda American diarist Alice James was known for living in isolation for much of her life. She is most known for keeping a journal later in life, “as a way of recording her understanding of herself,” which would later be published. In this class, participants will study published diary entries, epistolary writing, and books written by well-known (North) American figures who have defined pivotal, cultural moments and then will participate in generative writing exercises. New Dates: Three Mondays: October 23, 30, and November 6, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
 With Sarah Pleydell Adrienne Rich read Jane Eyre in childhood, in adolescence, and again in her twenties, thirties and forties and says she never lost the sense that it contained nourishment for her. This hybrid class- part reading, part writing ---will delve into a selection of published interpretations of the novel, mostly --though not exclusively --focused on its insights into the female experience. Three Saturdays: November 4, 11, and 18 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET Online |
 With Kate Reed Petty Write a short story in a month! In this hands-on workshop, we’ll start each class with a close reading of an excellent classic to identify techniques every writer can use, then we’ll create and develop our own stories through in-class exercises. Four Sundays: October 29 November 5, 12, and 19 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET Online |
 With Mia Brabham Join author Mia Brabham to learn how to craft a personal essay, and in turn, be transformed by your own findings and truths. Three Tuesdays: November 7, 14, and 21 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
 With Randon Billings Noble Winter can be a hard season both literally and metaphorically. But it’s also a good time to look inward. In this class we’ll use Katherine May’s book Wintering as a jumping off point to do a series of writing exercises that will show us different ways of looking at and living through the coldest season. One Wednesday: December 6 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
NONFICTION
 With Kimberly Clarke Near the turn of the 20th century, the members of the Osage Nation—removed from their native lands by Anglo-American settlers—became “the richest nation in the world per capita” due to their ownership of oil and gas rights on their reservation in Oklahoma. This discussion-based seminar explores David Grann’s 2017 book The Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, which details the conspiracy surrounding the murders of wealthy Osage and the FBI agents sent to investigate one of the Bureau's first cases. Two Tuesdays: November 7, 14 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET Online |
HISTORY & BIOGRAPHY
 With Richard Bell This four-part course investigates the geopolitical forces that shaped the American Revolution and the international consequences of the US break with Britain. It asks how the familiar story of the American Revolution—its causes, course, and consequences—changes when we think about the American Revolution as part and parcel of a titanic struggle among European empires and peoples for control of a vast, resource-rich new world? Each talk tackles a different group of actors—Hessians, Prussians, Frenchmen, Spaniards—and situates their experiences at the center of dramatic narratives about the loss of the British Empire’s thirteen golden geese and the birth of the United States. Four Fridays: October 6, 13, 20, 27 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET Online |