TU McFarlin Professor of Philosophy Jacob Howland helped to bring his MacArthur Award-winning mother’s work back into print. A few years ago, Howland shared Bette Howland’s story with TU. Now on Tuesday, May 7, join him, Brigid Hughes (former editor of the Paris Review and founder and editor of A Public Space), and a representative from Belletrist for a panel at the IDL Ballroom to celebrate the release of Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, which restores to the literary canon an extraordinarily gifted writer. Bette’s rediscovery story will be featured in the May 1 issue of the Tulsa Voice, where an article will appear by TU alumna Alicia Chesser Atkin.
- When: Tuesday, May 7
- When: 7 p.m.
- Where IDL Ballroom
Special guests
Jacob Howland
Brigid Hughes (A Public Space)
Karah Preiss (Belletrist)
Praise for Bette Howland
“Her sheer gifts as a writer… place her in a lonely league of achievement.”
-New York Times
“A remarkable literary voice rediscovered.”
-Kirkus
“Howland creates stark and strange works of genius….This is a collection to savor, and Howland is an author to celebrate.”
-Publishers Weekly
Bette Howland (1937-2017) was the author of three books: W-3, Blue in Chicago, and Things to Come and Go. She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1984, after which though she continued writing but did not publish another book. Near the end of her life, her stories found new readers when a portfolio of her work appeared in a special issue of A Public Space magazine exploring a generation of women writers, their lifetimes of work, and questions of anonymity and public attention in art.