2008 Woodie Awards
Learning as a bus ride
Brigid Marshall - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 4/3/07 Section: Arts
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Jonathan Silin spends most of his time educating future educators and researching, but now he's making time to write about relationships, death, and his own identity.
The Bank Street College of Education professor, hailing from New York, will arrive at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., to read from his memoir, My Father's Keeper: The Story of a Gay Son and his Aging Parents.
The story chronicles the years from 1992 through 2005, when Silin cared for his father, who had larynx cancer, and his mother, who had had a stroke.
The bus ride from his parents' house in New York City to his Long Island home became a writing refuge where, Silin said, the genesis of My Father's Keeper occurred. He spent three years piecing the work together, writing chapter at a time during the frequent trips on public transportation.
"I think that my writing has become increasingly personal and unconcerned with starting with personal narratives and my own story - everything is just less and less theoretical."
The project's progress was aided by the regular writing procedure he employed.
"I usually began by writing some pieces of narrative to document my experience and learn about it through writing," he said. "It was a way for me to find solid ground with myself."
Silin's visit to Iowa City will include an on-campus lecture. The UI College of Education Diversity Committee, the teaching and learning department, and the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies will sponsor his talk, "What Can Be Said? Silence, Voice, and Socially Relevant Curriculum," on April 5 at 3 p.m.
"His work crosses all sorts of boundaries, as an early childhood educator and a gay activist," said a longtime friend of Silin, Gail Boldt, an Obermann scholar in residence and UI associate professor. "He writes about what ought to be taught in the classroom."
Boldt, a fellow researcher on early childhood development who met Silin at a conference in 1992, holds a Ph.D. from the UI's Program in Language, Literacy, and Culture. She brought Silin to the UI to share from his experiences in the classroom as well as his many contributions to the world of writing.
The Bank Street College of Education professor, hailing from New York, will arrive at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St., to read from his memoir, My Father's Keeper: The Story of a Gay Son and his Aging Parents.
The story chronicles the years from 1992 through 2005, when Silin cared for his father, who had larynx cancer, and his mother, who had had a stroke.
The bus ride from his parents' house in New York City to his Long Island home became a writing refuge where, Silin said, the genesis of My Father's Keeper occurred. He spent three years piecing the work together, writing chapter at a time during the frequent trips on public transportation.
"I think that my writing has become increasingly personal and unconcerned with starting with personal narratives and my own story - everything is just less and less theoretical."
The project's progress was aided by the regular writing procedure he employed.
"I usually began by writing some pieces of narrative to document my experience and learn about it through writing," he said. "It was a way for me to find solid ground with myself."
Silin's visit to Iowa City will include an on-campus lecture. The UI College of Education Diversity Committee, the teaching and learning department, and the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies will sponsor his talk, "What Can Be Said? Silence, Voice, and Socially Relevant Curriculum," on April 5 at 3 p.m.
"His work crosses all sorts of boundaries, as an early childhood educator and a gay activist," said a longtime friend of Silin, Gail Boldt, an Obermann scholar in residence and UI associate professor. "He writes about what ought to be taught in the classroom."
Boldt, a fellow researcher on early childhood development who met Silin at a conference in 1992, holds a Ph.D. from the UI's Program in Language, Literacy, and Culture. She brought Silin to the UI to share from his experiences in the classroom as well as his many contributions to the world of writing.
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