Coming This Spring: Jonathan Harr
Jonathan
Harr, the 2008 Robert Vare Nonfiction Writer in Residence, is the author of
two books: the national bestseller and winner of the National Book Critics
Circle Award for Nonfiction, A Civil Action, and The Lost Painting,
a New York Times bestseller. A Civil Action spent
two-and-a-half years on the New York Times bestseller list and
is required reading at many law schools across the US, in courses on
Civil Procedure, Ethics, Torts, Trial Practice, and Environmental Law.
It is used in conjunction with a legal textbook, A Civil Action:
A Documentary Companion, published by Foundation Press in 1999. The
book is also used in geology courses at Ohio State University, the University
of Arizona, Brigham Young University, among others. It was the basis
of a film starring John Travolta and Robert Duvall. The
Lost Painting, also published by Random House, spent several weeks
on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated
into 19 languages. Harr is a former staff writer at the New
England Monthly and has written frequently for The New Yorker
and The New York Times Magazine. From 1999-2000 he was a visiting
writer at the American Academy in Rome. He lives and works in Northampton,
Massachusetts, where he has taught nonfiction writing at Smith College.
In 2000, UofC alumnus Robert Vare (A.B. ’67, A.M. ’70) approached John Boyer, the Dean of the College, with the idea of starting a Writer-in-Residence position at The University of Chicago expressly devoted to nonfiction.
Chicago has had numerous writers-in-residence over the years–in fiction, poetry, and playwriting—but this was the first time that the university had given this kind of recognition to nonfiction writing as an intellectual discipline and art form.
The program, which operates under the aegis of the Committee on Creative Writing, brings to campus a different nonfiction writer of unusual accomplishment every academic year to teach one writing course for one quarter. The syllabus, structure, and content of the course is entirely up to the individual writers-in-residence, though all courses have a strong workshop component and provide students with opportunities for significant hands-on writing experience. While on campus, Vare Writers-in-Residence are encouraged to make full use of campus resources and to participate in the University community.
The program has proven to be a great success with students and faculty, as well as with rotating writers-in-residence themselves. Previous writers-in-residence have noted how gifted and highly motivated their Chicago students have been. David Hajdu called them the best he’d ever taught and described Chicago as “the fulfillment of my dream vision of what a great university is.”
