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Paul Simon's 2013 Ellmann Lectures scheduled at Emory

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Paul Simon by Mark Seliger.

Songwriter Paul Simon will present the 2013 Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature at Emory University Sept. 22-24, 2013.  

The series, "The Insomniac's Lullaby: Awake and Aware of the Time," will include two public lectures, a conversation between Simon and former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, and a music performance.

Schedule of events  

Simon will be appearing in four public events at Emory, including:  

  • Sunday, Sept. 22, 4:15 p.m.

Lecture: "Sailing on an Endless Sea: My Life as a Songwriter" – Glenn Auditorium, 1652 N. Decatur Rd.  

  • Monday, Sept. 23, 3:45 p.m.

Conversation with Paul Simon and Billy Collins – Glenn Auditorium.  

  • Monday, Sept. 23, 8:15 p.m.

Lecture: "View from Cloud: The Solitary Artist in a Collaborative Culture" – Glenn Auditorium.  

  • Tuesday, Sept. 24, 7 p.m.

Music Performance by Paul Simon with guitarist Mark Stewart – Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, 1700 N. Decatur Rd.  

Ticketing information

Tickets are free, but are limited to two (2) tickets per person, per event. Tickets for the previously scheduled events will not be honored for the new dates.  

General public complimentary tickets will be available beginning at 10 a.m. Monday, Sept. 9, 2013, in person at the Arts at Emory Box Office in the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts (1700 North Decatur Road, Suite 251, Atlanta, 30322) or by phone at 404-727-5050. Phone orders are subject to a $4.00 convenience fee. Ticket reservations will not be available online for this event.  

Tickets ordered by phone will be mailed directly to the ticketholder. All other tickets must be picked up in person at the Arts at Emory Box Office during regular business hours (Monday-Friday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.). There will be no will call or standby seating for any Ellmann Lectures event.  

Emory students, faculty and staff may enter their names in a lottery for complimentary tickets beginning at 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 26, 2013 through 11:59 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31, 2013. More information about the ticket lottery can be found at: http://emory.edu/ellmann.

Background on Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature

Simon joins a distinguished roster of authors that has made the Ellmanns one of the leading literary lectures series in the English-speaking world. Ellmann Lecturers include Nobel Prize laureates Seamus Heaney (1988) and Mario Vargas Llosa (2006), Salman Rushdie (2004), Umberto Eco (2008) and Margaret Atwood (2010).

Emory established the biennial Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature in 1988 in honor of Richard Ellmann (1918-1987), who served as the university's first Robert W. Woodruff Professor from 1980-1987. The biographer of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde, Ellmann was one of the 20th century's greatest literary biographers and critics of modern Irish, English and American literature. He enjoyed eminent domain among the interpreters of W. B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Henry James, T. S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, and other modern authors. His public lectures were unparalleled in their appeal to a worldwide audience of readers. Ellmann always spoke in a language that invited the reader to share his or her personal engagement with serious literature.


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