On Friday December 16th, the Department of English Studies and the Institute of American and Canadian Studies sponsored an event with visiting author Cynthia Levinson. Ms. Levinson writes books for children and young adults that try to present issues of history and social justice in a way that makes them accessible to younger audiences.
More than 35 people attended the event and got to hear Ms. Levinson speak about her work as a writer and her recent biography of Hillary Clinton. Ms. Levinson was a classmate of Hillary Clinton at famed Wellesley College and offered an insight into her early life that few people could.
The event was led by three student editors from Angles, the department journal of new writing. 4th year students Mami Yuguchi and Daigo Sugiyama and 1st year student Anna Kaneda. The students introduced Ms. Levinson and led a spirited question and answer session where Ms. Levinson discussed the recent US election, how she overcomes writers block, and many other interesting topics. Ms. Levinson’s expressed the importance of research when she writes. When she feels stuck she said, it’s because “she doesn’t know enough” about her topic/subject and research helps her push forward.
We thank everyone for coming to the event and thank Ms. Levinson for being such a warm and fascinating guest.
