Slf Album: An Informal History of Notre Dame's Sophomore Literary Festival 1967-1996 - Paperback

by Linda Decicco (Author)

The SLF Album is the first comprehensive story of the University of Notre Dame's Sophomore Literary Festival. This portrait focuses primarily on the literary giants whose presence has made this festival one of the nation's most esteemed. It also gives us a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at this thirty year-old phenomenon which has always been organized, coordinated, and managed by students.

Established in 1967 as a week-long Faulknerian festival, in 1968 the Sophomore Literary Festival came into its own with a series of readings and workshops by some of the country's most prestigious writers, including Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, and Ralph Ellison. The precedent set in 1968 became a legacy which has carried through to 1996, and DeCicco's portrait presents each year as its own chapter. equal on importance and prestige to all previous years. In addition to providing excerpts from the writers' readings and lectures, DeCicco describes the sophomore committee's author selection process and events which shed light ion the fame and foibles of many literary greats.

DeCicco's success in portraying the participating internationally acclaimed authors, who include Margaret Atwood, Allen Ginsberg, Arthur Miller, Robert Bly, Tennessee Williams, Joyce Carol Oates, Edward Albee, Susan Sontag, Gloria Naylor, is uniquely tied to the intimacy of the Notre Dame setting. Her record encompasses the mythical images of these world-renowned authors in the context of a modest student-run festival at a midwestern private university. This comprehensive history is important and fascinating reading for all who have experienced the magic of Notre Dame's Sophomore Literary Festival, as well as for anyone interested in the arts.

Back Jacket

The SLF Album is the first comprehensive story of the University of Notre Dame's Sophomore Literary Festival. This portrait focuses primarily on the literary giants whose presence has made this festival one of the nation's most esteemed. It also gives us a behind-the-scenes look at this thirty-year-old phenomenon which has always been organized, coordinated, and managed by students. DeCicco draws on interviews, anecdotes, and recollections of students, faculty, and the writers themselves to capture the flavor of a student-run festival and to portray the literary guests it attracted, including among many others, Allen Ginsberg, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Chaim Potok, Ken Kesey, Jorge Luis Borges, Edward Albee, and Joyce Carol Oates. This book will interest all those who have experienced the magic of Notre Dame's Sophomore Literary Festival as well as anyone interested in the arts.

Author Biography

Linda DeCicco, a retired English teacher, taught for 17 years in urban public high schools in South Bend, Indiana. She began her teaching career in 1998 after working as a journalist at the South Bend Tribune where she was the Arts and Entertainment editor. A published poet and short story writer, her poetry and fiction have been published in small literary magazines including Common Ground Review, Spire Press and Spinsters Ink. She taught a newspaper course for the Upward Bound program at the University of Notre Dame and a Creative Writing course for the Saint Mary's Summer Academy. She was awarded a Teacher Creativity Fellowship from the Lilly Endowment in 2005.