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Visiting Writers Program

Visiting Writers Program

Throughout their careers at Berkeley Carroll, students are writers; like all great writers, they are also readers.

The Berkeley Carroll School has an usually rich literary culture, including many writers, editors, and publishers among its parent body, alumni, and faculty; even the neighborhood is literary—Park Slope, home to fabulous writers, has appeared in many contemporary novels.

For Berkeley Carroll students, the interface between being a writer and being a reader comes together, in part, through the school’s Visiting Writers program. This remarkable program invites exceptional writers into the classroom. Visiting writers reveal their creative lives, the genesis of their ideas, the discipline required to write every day, the challenge of revision, and the deep love and commitment they have for their art.

News

2013 Caldecott Winner to Meet with Lower School Students

January 28, 2013

Peter Brown received a Caldecott Honor Award on January 28, 2013. He will meet with the Lower School on Thursday, Jan 31. His book You Will Be My Friend will support social skills curriculum in PreK and Kindergarten. Peter Brown's book, The Curious Garden will support grade 2's study of the High LIne.
Daniel Goldhagen Speaks to BC

November 16, 2012

On November 9, 2012, venerated and controversial historian Daniel Goldhagen barely had time to put mustard on his sandwich before students began excitedly grilling him about whether the bombing of Nagasaki was an act of vengeance on President Truman’s part.

To read more about Mr. Goldhagen's sobering visit to Berkeley Carroll, click here.
Bestselling Author Rebecca Skloot Visits

November 15, 2012

On November 13, 2012, award-winning writer Rebecca Skloot told Upper Schoolers that her universally acclaimed book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks started as an extra-credit assignment in 1988; her New York Times Magazine story on goldfish surgery grew out of a conversation she’d overheard at the vet's. "Every field depends on curiosity," she explained.

Click for more on her effervescent lecture, which hopscotched from Billie Jean King to the Nuremberg Laws to her award-winning book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
New Yorker Writer David Owen Speaks to the High School About Environmental Issues

May 02, 2012

David Owen, the New Yorker writer and author of The Conundrum, spoke to the High School on May 2, 2012, about environmental issues. He asks the question: given all of our technology and all of the knowledge already accrued that shows us how to live sustainably, isn't there someone who can invent a way out of the energy crisis?
Author Darin Strauss Talks to the High School

February 03, 2012

By way of introduction, Courtney Roach '12 said that Darin Strauss's memoir Half a Life was honest and blunt. When he addressed the High School on February 3, 2012, Mr. Strauss spoke honestly and bluntly. "When you're writing about yourself and you take out the parts that make you look bad," he said, "it's not art. It's propaganda."

Darin Strauss knows memoir. His received the National Book Critics Circle Award. He wrote Half a Life in order to come to terms with the very personal story of killing a bicyclist. His process also includes talking about his book.