“WAMFEST 2014: The Illuminated Word” features award-winning director Neil Burger, comic book artist and screenwriter Neil Gaiman, pen and ink artist Michael Arthur, graphic artist and author Stefan Bucher, acclaimed author Salman Rushdie, poet J. Mae Barzio, composer and musician Paul Cantelon, and the American String Quartet, in discussion with Wesley Stace, WAMFEST Artist in Residence.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
“Illumination and Illusions: Putting Fiction on the Screen – A Conversation with Neil Burger”
Screening of Limitless, 2 p.m., Dreyfuss Hall, Room 125
Discussion and Reception, 5 p.m., Hartman Lounge, Hennessy Hall (The Mansion)
Neil Burger directed the sci-fi action film Divergent (2014), based on the dystopian novel of the same name by Veronica Roth. He also filmed the pseudo-documentary Interview with the Assassin (2002), the period drama The Illusionist, and the 2011 thriller Limitless. Burger, who directed and wrote Interview with the Assassin, won Best Feature for the film at the Woodstock Film Festival. Interview with the Assassin was also nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, including best First Feature.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
“The Illuminated Word: A Conversation with Neil Gaiman”
4 p.m.
Lenfell Hall, Hennessy Hall
Neil Gaiman is the author of over 30 books, including The Sandman,Neverwhere, The Graveyard Book, Good Omens, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. His work has been honored with many awards internationally, including the Newbery and Carnegie Medals. His books and stories have also been awarded four Hugos, two Nebulas, a World Fantasy Award, four Bram Stoker Awards, six Locus Awards, two British Science Fiction Awards, a British Fantasy Award, three Geffens, an International Horror Guild Award and two Mythopoeic Awards.
Friday, October 17, 2014
“The Art of Illumination: A Conversation with Michael Arthur and Stefan Bucher”
2 p.m.
Dreyfuss, Room 125
Michael Arthur, pen and ink artist, uses no pencils or rough drafts in his work. Each drawing is a live reaction to the moment. He is the archival artist at Joe’s Pub in New York, the rehearsal artist for La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego and the town draw-er in Balthrop, Alabama.
Stefan Bucher runs 344 Design, a full service design and illustration studio that Bucher calls “my creative home and my corporate respectability forcefield.” He has designed and illustrated everything from promotional posters, to books, to animated music videos. Bucher is the creator of the popular online series “Daily Monster” and has authored and illustrated two books.
Friday, October 17, 2014
“Memory Palace: Music Meets the Page”
Featuring Salman Rushdie, American String Quartet, Mae Barizo and Paul Cantelon
6 p.m.
Lenfell Hall, Hennessy Hall (The Mansion)
Delving into music by Ravel, Beethoven and Cantelon, these versatile and innovative artists will blend poetry, prose and chamber works, providing an evocative meditation illuminating the potency of music and memory.
Salman Rushdie, who was the target of international death threats over his novel The Satanic Verses in 1989, is a prize-winning novelist and essayist who has been knighted by the Queen of England. His novels include The Satanic Verses, The Moor’s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, The Enchantress of Florence and Midnight’s Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981 and later the Best of Booker.
The American String Quartet is recognized internationally as one of the world’s foremost quartets. Now in their 39th year, the Quartet is known for its performances of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Mozart. The Quartet’s recordings of the complete Mozart string quartets on a matched set of Stradivarius instruments are widely held to set the standard for this repertoire.
Paul Cantelon is a composer of contemporary classical music, a film score composer, a musician, and an actor He plays violin, piano, and accordion, and is a founding member of the American alternative band Wild Colonials. He has scored such films as the award winningDiving Bell And The Butterfly, The Other Boleyn Girl, W., New York, I Love You, Conviction, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, and Woody Allen: A Documentary.
J. Mae Barizo has been a champion of cross-genre work and performative poetics, performing poetry collaborations with various musicians, including the renowned American String Quartet. Barizo was nominated for Canada’s Robert Kroetsch award for Innovative Poetry and Ahsahta Press’s Sawtooth Poetry Prize and her manuscript Lux Aeterna was a finalist for the Kundiman/Alice James prize. In 2010 she was the recipient of the Jane Kenyon award for poetry at Bennington College. Her critical writing has been published in Tarpaulin Sky, Sink Review, H_NGM_N, and other journals and her new poetry appears in Denver Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Zoland Poetry, Another Chicago Magazine and Bellingham Review.
About WAMFEST
WAMFEST is open to the public, free of charge with registration.
Attendance is limited to a first come, first-serve basis, please register by October 14, 2014. For additional information, please email Kim Dennison, dennison@fdu.edu.
This program is graciously supported by Fairleigh Dickinson University, Bob and Patricia Pures, and the Morris Arts Council.
Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Florham Campus is located at 285 Madison Avenue, Madison, N.J.
Neil Burger directed the sci-fi action film Divergent (2014), based on the dystopian novel of the same name by Veronica Roth. He also filmed the pseudo-documentary Interview with the Assassin (2002), the period drama The Illusionist, and the 2011 thriller Limitless. Burger, who directed and wrote Interview with the Assassin, won Best Feature for the film at the Woodstock Film Festival. Interview with the Assassin was also nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, including best First Feature.
Neil Gaiman is the author of over 30 books, including The Sandman,Neverwhere, The Graveyard Book, Good Omens, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. His work has been honored with many awards internationally, including the Newbery and Carnegie Medals. His books and stories have also been awarded four Hugos, two Nebulas, a World Fantasy Award, four Bram Stoker Awards, six Locus Awards, two British Science Fiction Awards, a British Fantasy Award, three Geffens, an International Horror Guild Award and two Mythopoeic Awards.
Salman Rushdie, who was the target of international death threats over his novel The Satanic Verses in 1989, is a prize-winning novelist and essayist who has been knighted by the Queen of England. His novels include The Satanic Verses, The Moor’s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, The Enchantress of Florence and Midnight’s Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981 and later the Best of Booker.
The American String Quartet is recognized internationally as one of the world’s foremost quartets. Now in their 39th year, the Quartet is known for its performances of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Mozart. The Quartet’s recordings of the complete Mozart string quartets on a matched set of Stradivarius instruments are widely held to set the standard for this repertoire.
Paul Cantelon is a composer of contemporary classical music, a film score composer, a musician, and an actor He plays violin, piano, and accordion, and is a founding member of the American alternative band Wild Colonials. He has scored such films as the award winningDiving Bell And The Butterfly, The Other Boleyn Girl, W., New York, I Love You, Conviction, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel, and Woody Allen: A Documentary.
J. Mae Barizo has been a champion of cross-genre work and performative poetics, performing poetry collaborations with various musicians, including the renowned American String Quartet. Barizo was nominated for Canada’s Robert Kroetsch award for Innovative Poetry and Ahsahta Press’s Sawtooth Poetry Prize and her manuscript Lux Aeterna was a finalist for the Kundiman/Alice James prize. In 2010 she was the recipient of the Jane Kenyon award for poetry at Bennington College. Her critical writing has been published in Tarpaulin Sky, Sink Review, H_NGM_N, and other journals and her new poetry appears in Denver Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Zoland Poetry, Another Chicago Magazine and Bellingham Review. 
FDU WAMFest! 