Sex, Love, Art and Tolstoy
The Iowa Writers' House presents a special Valentine's Weekend experiential literary course.
Presented by a passionate Russian literature enthusiast, Anna Barker, this experiential literary course begins with coffee/tea and Russian tea cakes and ends with vodka and caviar sandwiches. Between culinary delights, participants will learn about Tolstoy's life, loves, influences, and obsessions, including the writing of the Kreutzer Sonata (1889), his most controversial and infuriating tale of love, obsession, sex, murder, and music! We will discuss the connections between this novella and the Beethoven piano sonata that inspired it and contemplate the influences of masterpieces in our lives today. This course is designed to provide artistic revelation and thought provoking fodder for group discussion and to breathe new life and inspiration into the mind of the participant. It's open to literary novices and advanced writers and thinkers. Preliminary reading the Richard Pevear and Larisa Volokhonsky translation of the novella (70 pages) is strongly encouraged/required (available in Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories at Prairie Lights).
Is there a more poignant way to spend a Valentine's Weekend Saturday in Iowa City than immersed in love, sex, art, and food through literary exploration? We can think of none!
Saturday Feb 13th at at the Iowa Writers' House
10:00-12pm: Morning session
12pm-1:30: Break for lunch
1:30-3:30pm: Afternoon Session
Course cost: $45 per individual or $85 for a duo
All proceeds donated to The Iowa Writers' House