In conjunction with the Creative Writing Lecture Series at the School of the Arts, the Heyman Center for the Humanities presents a discussion on the craft of writing with Elif Batuman.

Elif Batuman is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, which was a finalist for a 2010 National Book Critic Circle’s Award.

A Q&A session with the author will follow the talk.

The Creative Writing Lecture Series, now in its seventh year, brings distinguished writers to Columbia for original talks on literary craft. The writers are diverse and brilliant, with a wide range of artistic strategies, and each talk turns into a short course on the challenges of making vital literary art. Among our past guests are Aimee Bender, Joyce Carol Oates, Mary Gaitskill, James Wood, Michael Chabon, Jennifer Egan, Nicholson Baker, and Lydia Millet (above). The series is sponsored by the Columbia University School of the Arts Writing Program.