If you invited me to a seminar led by brain scientist John Medina, New York Times-bestselling author of Brain Rules and Brain Rules for Baby, and told me he was going to talk about the brain and its need for narrative, I would sign right up.
Medina, a developmental molecular biologist who is also the director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University, blogs at Brainstorm. (I happen to be that blog’s editor, but I often forget I’m editing because I get caught up in Medina’s ideas.)
But in this case, I don’t need to sign up for Medina’s seminar. I’m already packing my bags to be there.
And John Medina isn’t the only speaker I’m eager to hear. John Wilson, editor of Books and Culture, will be there. You’ve heard writers talk about “the writing life.” John Wilson’s going to talk about the reading life.
Did I mention Lauren Winner? The author of Girl Meets God and Still — a book I just finished, and one I will revisit for many years to come — will also speak about telling our own stories.
This seminar will take place in one of the most beautiful places in America: Laity Lodge. Want to join me? Wait… there’s more!
Poet Julia Kasdorf, who recently published Poetry in America will be there.
And the ferocious duo of Ashley Cleveland and Kenny Greenberg will put story to music, rocking the canyon.
Through some bizarre accident, it appears I’ll be speaking there too, and leading a fiction workshop. So sign up now. We’re going to make sure that summer keeps on going right through the end of September.