Amos Oz at the Kelly Writers House

The Kelly Writers House and Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing were pleased to be co-sponsors of a conference devoted to the work of Amos Oz. We hosted two events during the four-day conference: a reception on Sunday, October 17 at 6 PM; and a lunch on Tuesday, October 19 at 1 PM. During the Sunday evening event, Al Filreis welcomed Oz and his translator Nicholas de Lange, Nili Gold (the conference co-organizer) and others, and the introduced Oz who read (in Hebrew) a chapter from A Tale of Love and Darkness, the memoir just then being published in English translation by De Lange. Al Filreis then read the same chapter in English, and De Lange then read another section of the book in English.

Recordings

October 17, 2004

  1. welcome and introduction by Al Filreis (10:06)
  2. reading from A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz (Hebrew) (10:54)
  3. reading in English by Al Filreis (26:03)
  4. reading by Nicholas DeLange (10:13)

You can also hear a recording of the entire program in mp3 format here.

Conference

An international conference to critically appraise the work of Amos Oz, Israel's most famous living writer, will be held at the University of Pennsylvania in October 2004. The conference is a collaborative venture of the University of Pennsylvania and Ben Gurion University of the Negev and will bring together 25-30 leading scholars of Jewish and Israeli literature from the Middle East, Europe, and North America. Oz himself will attend each of the panel discussions and will respond to the papers in a plenary session on the second evening of the conference. All sessions will be open to interested Penn faculty and students, and Oz's address will be advertised and open to the wider community.

Amos Oz, who is routinely discussed as a future Nobel Prize winner, had never before appeared at Penn. He has published 18 books, including novels, books of essays, and literary criticism, and nearly 500 essays and articles in Israeli and international magazines and newspapers. His work has been translated into 30 languages in over 35 countries. Oz's writing, both fiction and nonfiction, is rooted in his homeland, and it is his attachment to the history, landscape and people of his birthplace that undoubtedly also motivates him to continue his longstanding activities on behalf of peace in Israel and the Middle East. Oz's participation in the conference represents a rare opportunity for Penn's students and faculty members, as well as members of the public, to engage directly with the author as he speaks about his novels, essays, and political activism.

For the entire schedule for the International Conference on Amos Oz, click here.