Katharine Weber is a widely published novelist and autobiographer. Before her appointment to the Richard L. Thomas Visiting Chair position at Kenyon College Katharine was an Adjunct Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Columbia University's School of the Arts (2006-2012), Kratz Writer in Residence at Goucher College (2006), a lecturer in fiction writing at Yale (1996-2003), and a visiting lecturer in fiction writing at Connecticut College. She is the author of five novels and a memoir, and is currently writing a novel about a monkey helper.
Katharine has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle, and is an Associate Fellow of Calhoun College at Yale University. She was named one of Granta Magazine's "50 Best Young American Novelists" in 1996. In addition to numerous stories and essays published in anthologies, her short fiction has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, Story, Boulevard Magenta, and Southwest Review. Her reviews, essays, and journalism have…
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Katharine Weber is a widely published novelist and autobiographer. Before her appointment to the Richard L. Thomas Visiting Chair position at Kenyon College Katharine was an Adjunct Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Columbia University's School of the Arts (2006-2012), Kratz Writer in Residence at Goucher College (2006), a lecturer in fiction writing at Yale (1996-2003), and a visiting lecturer in fiction writing at Connecticut College. She is the author of five novels and a memoir, and is currently writing a novel about a monkey helper.
Katharine has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle, and is an Associate Fellow of Calhoun College at Yale University. She was named one of Granta Magazine's "50 Best Young American Novelists" in 1996. In addition to numerous stories and essays published in anthologies, her short fiction has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, Story, Boulevard Magenta, and Southwest Review. Her reviews, essays, and journalism have appeared in publications including The New York Times Book Review,The Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Chicago Tribune,The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, The London Review of Books, Washington Post Bookworld, Salon.com, The New York Times, and Architectural Digest.
As trustee of the musical legacy of her maternal grandmother Kay Swift, Katharine is also involved in numerous musical projects, most recently a musical adaptation for the stage, with a book by David Caudle and music direction by Aaron Gandy, of her memoir about Kay Swift and George Gershwin, which will be centered on the creation of the hit 1930 Broadway musical "Fine and Dandy."
Areas of Expertise
Creative writing
Courses Recently Taught
ENGL 200
Introduction to Fiction Writing
ENGL 200
This course is a workshop-style seminar that introduces students to the elements of fiction writing. The course begins with exercises emphasizing various aspects of fiction: place, dialogue, character. Students then write a story based on a situation suggested by the instructor. Later they devise and revise a work of their own. The course assumes a basic English writing competence. It is not a composition course. An important goal is developing the sense of an audience. The course also requires a mature approach to offering and receiving criticism. Prerequisite: submission of writing sample and permission of the instructor. Check with the English department administrative assistant for submission deadlines. Offered annually in multiple sections.
ENGL 202
Creative Nonfiction Workshop
ENGL 202
Students in this workshop will write imaginative nonfiction in any of its traditional forms: memoirs, reflections, polemics, chronicles, idylls, lampoons, monographs, pamphlets, profiles, reviews, prefaces, sketches, remarks, complaints--anything but the traditional college essay. As in other writing workshops, attention in class will be paid above all to the writing itself, word by word, sentence by sentence. Prerequisite: submission of writing sample and permission of the instructor. Check with the English department administrative assistant for submission deadlines. Offered annually.
ENGL 300
Advanced Fiction Writing
ENGL 300
This workshop will focus on discussion of participants' fiction as well as on exercises and playful experimentation. Principally, we will be concerned with how stories work rather than what they mean. This perspective can prove a useful lens for reconsidering works long accepted as "great," and a practical method for developing individual styles and strategies of writing. Prerequisite: ENGL 200 or ENGL 202, submission of a writing sample and permission of the instructor. Check with the English department administrative assistant for submission deadlines. Offered annually.
ENGL 493
Individual Study
ENGL 493
Individual study is a privilege reserved for senior majors who want to pursue a course of reading or complete a writing project on a topic not regularly offered in the curriculum. This option is intended to supplement, not take the place of, coursework. Individual study cannot normally be used to fulfill requirements for the major. Typically, an individual study will earn .5 unit of credit, although in special cases it may be designed to earn .25 unit. To qualify for individual study, a student must identify a member of the English Department willing to direct the project and, in consultation with him or her, write a proposal, which must be approved by the department chair. The one- to two-page proposal should describe a preliminary bibliography (and/or set of specific problems, goals, and tasks), outline a specific schedule of assignments, and describe in some detail the methods of assessment. The student should also briefly describe any prior coursework that particularly qualifies him or her for this project. The department expects the student to meet regularly with the instructor for at least one hour per week or the equivalent. The amount of work submitted for a grade should approximate that required, on average, in 400-level English courses. In the case of group individual studies, a single proposal may be submitted, assuming that all group members will follow the same protocols. Students are urged to begin discussion of their proposals well in advance, preferably the semester before the course is to take place.
Academic & Scholarly Achievements
2011
The Memory of All That: George Gershwin, Kay Swift, and My Family's Legacy of Infidelities. Crown, 2011; Broadway, 2012.
2010
True Confections. Shaye Areheart Books, 2010. Broadway Books, 2011 (Finalist, Connecticut Book Award.)
2006
Triangle. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006. Picador, 2007. (Winner, Connecticut Book Award; Finalist, Paterson Fiction Prize; Finalist, John Gardner Fiction Book Award; Long list, Dublin/Impac Literary Award.)
2003
The Little Women. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003. Picador 2004. (New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year; Library Journal Best Book of the Year; Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year; Finalist, Paterson Fiction Prize; Finalist, Connecticut Book Award.)
1999
The Music Lesson. Crown Publishers, Inc., 1999. Picador, 2000. Broadway Books, 2011. (New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year; Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year; Library Journal Best Book of the Year.)
1995
Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear. Crown Publishers, Inc, 1995. Picador, 1996. Broadway Books, 2011. (New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year; Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year; Library Journal Best Book of the Year; Long list, Dublin/Impac Literary Award.)
