Author Colson Whitehead adds comic touch to reading

Author Colson Whitehead, who visited campus Thursday as part of the Living Writers course, shared thoughtful insights and lots of laughs with audience members who filled Persson Auditorium and with about 60 others who watched him through a live webcast.

Whitehead, winner of the MacArthur Fellowship and numerous literary prizes, conducted more of a stand-up comedy show than a public reading.

He professed that the reason he pursued writing as a profession was because he “didn’t have to wear clothes” or “talk to people.” He said he felt his hands were not suited for hard labor because they were thin and feminine. And he said that he determined that it was due to his genetic makeup that he became a writer; he had no other choice.

He also spoke about the difficulty of garnering an audience, proclaiming that he felt like a “microbe in the butt of a gnat trying to catch the attention of an elephant.”

The author of Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, and John Henry Days, shared a guide for how to become a writer. Only later did the audience find out that the advice was actually a short piece he had written and was not to be taken seriously.

The reading drew a large and appreciative audience, including Michelle Cohen ’15, who commented that one of the determining factors in her decision to attend Colgate was the Living Writers course.

“I thought it was so wonderful the way they [Colgate] bring writers to campus,” she said.

This year, the Living Writers course highlights authors whose works are set in New York.

“Instead of a global theme we decided to conceive of the local in terms of the idea of New York, whether New York City, downstate or upstate,” said English professor Jane Pinchin, who co-teaches the course with Jennifer Brice.

In addition to the undergraduate course, the professors for the first time are teaching a version called LW Online involving nearly 70 parents and alumni.