Stephanie Nikolopoulos's Blog, page 16
December 10, 2014
Remembering Mark Van Doren
Mark Van Doren passed away on this day in 1972, at the age of seventy-eight. Originally from Illinois, Van Doren worked for many years at Columbia University, at one point testifying on Allen Ginsberg’s behalf to keep the young poet from going to jail. Two days before his death, Van Doren underwent surgery at Charlotte […]
November 30, 2014
Happy 99th Birthday, Robert Lax!
Robert Lax was born on this day in 1915 in Olean, in the Southern Tier region of New York. Lax studied poetry with Mark Van Doren at Columbia University and graduated in 1938, right before Jack Kerouac arrived on campus. Similarly, they both took on a life of wandering. Lax worked for some prestigious magazines […]
November 12, 2014
Remembering Alan Ansen
On this day in 2006 we lost Alan Ansen. Today we celebrate his life and work. Ansen, a graduate of Harvard, was secretary to none other than the great W. H. Auden, who had come to New York City in 1939. He hung out with Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso, […]
November 5, 2014
Remembering Ginsberg’s Teacher Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling passed away on this day in 1975, at the age of seventy. He had lived through a lot: World War I, the Lost Generation, women’s suffrage, Prohibition, the Great Depression, World War II, the Beat Generation, Hippies, and Disco. It’s no wonder his politics, a topic on which he wrote, shifted and swayed […]
November 2, 2014
We’re All Kerouacky!
photo by author Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond I had the great honor of opening the We’re All Kerouacky edition of Ronnie Norpel‘s fantastic reading series Tract 187 Culture Clatch — aptly* held at The West End — on October 1 with two passages from Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” Ronnie’s an amazing host. […]
October 21, 2014
Remembering Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969 Jack Kerouac was only forty-seven years old when he passed away. The day before he died, he’d been drinking whiskey and writing at his home in St. Petersburg, Florida, when he suddenly felt ill. He called out to his wife, a Greek American from his […]
October 4, 2014
My “Burning Furiously Beautiful” Reading at Lamprophonic
images via Lamprophonic Right on the heels of my reading at the We’re All Kerouacky edition of Ronnie Norpel’s Tract 187 Culture Clatch, I was selected to read a section from Burning Furiously Beautiful at New York’s Lamprophonic reading series on October 3. I was super excited when I discovered that I would be reading with one of my fellow […]
September 26, 2014
Remembering Juggling-Poet Robert Lax!
Born in Olean, New York, Robert Lax studied poetry at Columbia, worked for The New Yorker, cofounded the Catholic publication Jubilee, joined the circus, spent thirty-five years on the Greek island of Patmos, and took up a type of meditation founded by Eknath Easwaran before returning to Olean just weeks before he passed away there […]
September 24, 2014
Happy 118th Birthday, Fitzgerald!
Photo circa 1921, “The World’s Work” (June 1921 issue), via Wikipedia The man who perhaps best captured the glitz and the glam of the roaring twenties, F. Scott Fitzgerald, was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Fitzgerald is, of course, the author of The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful […]
September 10, 2014
Fall Semester of the Redeemer Writers Group Announced
Along with two other very talented writers and editors, Maurice and Nana, I will once again be hosting the Redeemer Writers Group after our summer hiatus. The dates for our fall “semester” have now been finalized: September 22, 2014. 7-9pm. October 20, 2014. 7-9pm. November 17, 2014. 7-9pm. The writing workshops are completely free […]
