How I Write: A Conversation with Harriet Scott Chessman

Harriet Scott Chessman is the author most recently of the acclaimed novel The Beauty of Ordinary Things, the story of the unexpected love between a young Vietnam veteran and a Benedictine nun. Her other books include the novels Someone Not Really Her Mother, Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper, and Ohio Angels as well as The Public Is Invited to Dance, a book about Gertrude Stein. Her fiction has been translated into ten languages. She has taught literature and writing at Yale, the Bread Loaf School of English, and Stanford Continuing Studies. She received a PhD from Yale.

Join Hilton Obenzinger, an accomplished fiction and nonfiction writer and lecturer in the Stanford Department of English, American Studies Program, and Stanford Continuing Studies, as he engages Harriet Scott Chessman in conversation, focusing on the techniques, quirks, and joys of writing.

This program is co-sponsored by Stanford Continuing Studies and the Hume Center for Writing and Speaking. For video, audio, and transcripts of previous “How I Write” conversations, visit continuingstudies.stanford.edu/howiwrite.