Upcoming: The Next Few Weeks

Including reading schedules and a poem for summer

Vincent van Gogh, Wheatfield with a Reaper, 1889, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Hey friends,

Somehow the end of summer is fast-approaching and I'm feeling a bit out of sorts at how quickly it’s passed. It’s disorienting. The heat and humidity will linger here in North Carolina for a while, of course, and baseball season is still in full swing and yet as the school year approaches I find myself reflecting on the past few months and looking towards autumn. In the shop the summer is a much slower season (and this year construction on our street hasn’t helped), but in every other way summer is extremely busy—and fruitful. Heidi, Tim, Sean, and I have had the great privilege of spending time with lots of you at a couple of Close Reads events over the last few months, we’ve read and discussed some great books here on the show, and we’ve been planning all kinds of future happenings for CR world. (More on that later.)

So I just want to express my gratitude for this community, for the myriad ways you support our endeavors here. We want to host conversations that matter, that are meaningful, that are oriented towards true and good and beautiful things. That’s our goal. But it’s not possible without your participation and input and insight. You help us stay oriented and we’re grateful. Thank you!

And now, a programming update for the next few weeks:

Schedule for The Picture of Dorian Gray

We have recorded episode one on Oscar Wilde’s infamous novel and we’ll be dropping it on Monday. Here’s the full schedule.

Week 1 (August 14): Ch. 1-3
Week 2 (August 21): Ch. 4-7
Week 3 (August 28): Ch. 8-12
Week 4 (September 4): Ch. 13-16
Week 5 (September 11): Ch. 17-end (20)* UPDATE: The 9/4 episode will cover the ending of the book)
Week 6 (September 11): Q&A

Remaining Schedule for That Hideous Strength

Episode 4 (August 18): Chapters 10-11
Episode 5 (September 1): Chapters 12-14 (UPDATE: September 15)
Episode 6 (September 15): Chapters 15-End (UPDATE: September 29)
Episode 7 (September 29): Q&A 9UPDATE: October 13)

---

Coming August 29th at 8:30 pm EST: Our first live poetry hour

One of our favorite parts of the Close Reads retreat is the daily conversations about poetry, so we’re going to try to replicate that (without being in person, but still) on Zoom once a month. If you’re a subscriber here at Close Reads HQ you’ll get an email with access to the conversation. We’ll be discussing “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop.

---

Short Fiction Focus

We’ve also officially launched this new feature for subscribers by sharing a live recording from last week’s CR on the Road event:

Short Fiction Focus: "The Ugliest Pilgrim" by Doris Betts

---

Coming later this month: Close Reads at the Movies watches Rear Window! Now is a good time to watch this masterpiece from Alfred Hitchcock.

---

A Poem for the End of Summer

[by Emily Dickinson]

As imperceptibly as grief
The summer lapsed away,—
Too imperceptible, at last,
To seem like perfidy.

A quietness distilled,
As twilight long begun,
Or Nature, spending with herself
Sequestered afternoon.

The dusk drew earlier in,
The morning foreign shone,—
A courteous, yet harrowing grace,
As guest who would be gone.

And thus, without a wing,
Or service of a keel,
Our summer made her light escape
Into the beautiful.