Sunday, August 30th

10:00 AM Spruce Fraser: Librarian, St. Louis Public Library

10:15 AM Patrick Murphy: Vice President of Local Production, KETC-TV

10:30 AM Rob Henke: Professor of Drama and Comparative Literature and Chair, Performing Arts Department, Washington University in St. Louis (Listen here.)

10:45 AM Jane Henderson: Book Editor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

11:00 AM Carmon Colangelo: Dean, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis

11:15 AM Mary Ann Lazarus, AIA, LEED AP: Senior Vice President, Firm wide Director of Sustainable Design, HOK

11:30 AM Daniel Jay, AIA, LEED AP: Managing Principal, Christner, Inc.

11:45 AM Michael Sherberg: Associate Professor of Italian, Washington Univeristy in St. Louis

12:00 PM Elizabeth Ketcher: Executive Director, StudioSTL Literary Arts Center

12:15 PM Obi Nwakanma: Assistant Professor of English, Truman State University

12:30 PM Lamonte Johnson: Staging Old Masters Actor (Listen here.)

12:45 PM Paul T. Shattuck: Assistant Professor, George Warren Brown School of Social Work,

Washington University in St. Louis

1:00 PM Hannah Fullgraf: Kress Interpretive Fellow, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

1:15 PM Olivia Lahs-Gonzales: Director, The Sheldon Art Galleries

1:30 PM Gene Dobbs Bradford: Executive Director, Jazz St. Louis

1:45 PM Sarah Bryan Miller: Music Critic, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

2:00 PM Sally Van Doren: Poet, St. Louis Poetry Center

2:15 PM Loy Ledbetter: President Emeritus, St. Louis Poetry Center

2:30 PM Eddie Silva: Publications Manager, Saint Louis Symphony

2:45 PM Rachel Storch: Representative of District 64, Missouri House of Representatives

3:00 PM William Wallace: Barbara Murphy Bryant Distinguished Professor of Art History, Washington University in St. Louis

3:15 PM Raymond Slavin, MD, MS: Professor of Internal Medicine, Director of Allergy and Immunology, St. Louis University School of Medicine

3:30 PM Harriet Baron: Coordinator of January Program, Washington University in St. Louis

3:45 PM Chris King: Editor, St. Louis American / Creative Director, Poetry Scores

4:00 PM Tom Sudholt: Morning Announcer and “Opera Man”, Classic 99

4:15 PM Stephen Schenkenberg: Editor-in-Chief, St. Louis Magazine

4:30 PM Denise DeCou: Executive Director, NCCJSTL

4:45 PM Ken Haller, MD: Associate Professor of Pediatrics, St. Louis University School of Medicine

5:00 PM Ulrike Schlafly: Chair, St. Louis Chapter of the American Council on Germany

5:15 PM Tom Schlafly: Partner, Thompson Coburn LLP // President, The Saint Louis Brewery, Inc.

5:30 PM Andrew Walker: Assistant Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of American Art, Saint Louis Art Museum

5:45 PM Jill Downen: Artist , Represented by Bruno David Gallery

6:00 PM Timothy O’Leary: General Director, Opera Theatre of St. Louis

6:15 PM Catherine Keane: Associate Professor of Classics, Washington University in St. Louis

6:30 PM Rev. Frank Krebs: Pastor, Sts. Clare & Francis Ecumenical Catholic Community

6:45 PM Catherine A. Neville: Editor and Co-founder, Sauce Magazine (Listen here.)

Saturday, August 29th

10:00 AM William H. Gass: Novelist, Essayist, and David May Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Washington University in St. Louis

10:15 AM Bob Duffy: Associate Editor, St. Louis Beacon

10:30 AM Rev. Renee Fenner: Canon Paster and Liturgist, Christ Church Cathedral

10:45 AM Lorin Cuoco: Writer, St. Louis Poetry Center

11:00 AM Matthias Waschek: Director, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

11:15 AM Bob McCabe: Morning Host, KWMU

11:30 AM Maria Altman: News Producer, KWMU

11:45 AM Emily Rauh Pulitzer: Founder, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

12:00 PM Bevis Schock: Attorney at Law

12:15 PM Clara Collins-Coleman: Curator of Interpretation, Laumeier Sculpture Park

12:30 PM Tricia Y. Paik: Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Saint Louis Art Museum

12:45 PM Eric Thoelke: President + Creative Director, TOKY Branding + Design

1:00 PM Walter Bargen: First Poet Laureate of Missouri

1:15 PM Joan Lipkin: Artistic Director, That Uppity Theatre Company

1:30 PM Stamos Metzidakis: Professor of French and Comparative Literature, Washington University in St. Louis

1:45 PM Paul Ha: Director, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis

2:00 PM Richard Newman: Editor, River Styx

2:15 PM Tyler Green: Editor, Modern Art Notes

2:30 PM Mary Reid Brunstrom: PhD candidate, Department of Art History and Archaeology,

Washington University in St. Louis

2:45 PM Steve Schreiner: Associate Professor of English, University of Missouri-St. Louis

3:00 PM David Bonetti: Visual Arts Critic, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

3:15 PM Judith Mann: Curator of European Art to 1800, Saint Louis Art Museum

3:30 PM Florian P. Thomas, MD, MA, PhD: Associate Chief of Staff, St. Louis VA Medical Center

// Professor of Neurology, St. Louis University School of Medicine

3:45 PM Stefene Russell: Executive Editor, At Home Culture Editor, St. Louis Magazine

4:00 PM K. Curtis Lyle: Poet, St. Louis Poetry Center (Listen here.)

4:15 PM Carol North: Artistic Director, Metro Theater Company (Listen here.)

4:30 PM Sabine Eckmann: Director and Chief Curator, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

4:45 PM Avery Springer: Chairman, Classics Department, John Burroughs School (Listen here.)

5:00 PM Carl Springer: Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Classics,

Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville

5:15 PM David Dietrich: Development Director, Employment Connection

5:30 PM Bill Appleton: Assistant Director for Public Programs and Education, Saint Louis Art Museum

5:45 PM Bridget McDermott Flood: Executive Director, Incarnate Word Foundation

6:00 PM Philip Purchase: Lecturer, The Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities, Washington University in St. Louis

6:15 PM Christy Gray: Executive Director, The Whitaker Foundation

6:30 PM Mary Jo Bang: Professor of English, Washington University in St. Louis

6:45 PM Ann Haubrich: Co-host of “Literature for the Halibut,” KDHX

7:00 PM Francesca Herndon-Consagra: Senior Curator, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

“Reading Ovid with Ellsworth and Jerome” and “As the painting subject turns”–Modern Art Notes

“‘Metamorphoses’ marathon draws unusual suspects”–the St. Louis Beacon

“Reader’s Theater” and “Metamorphoses”–SLSO Blog

“Mary Ann at the Metamorphoses”–Life at HOK

“No running in Ovid marathon”–STL Today

Poetry Scores

SLM Look/Listen

To all of you who spread the word about the Ovid reading, we really appreciate it. If any of you know of an article that should be added to the list above, please feel free to leave it in a comment.

Although the gods were in the distant skies,

Pythagoras drew near them with his mind . . .

We—the St. Louis Poetry Center and River Styx—were thrilled to meet with the Pulitzer staff this year to come up with ideas for literary programming to accompany the current exhibition and future ones. Visions of texts danced through our heads. Ovid alighted.

what nature had denied to human sight,

he saw with intellect, his mental eye.

Poems are made to be sung and sing we did this past weekend, in front of throngs who sat on stairs as the Greeks would have done, Romans, too.

When he, with reason and tenacious care,

had probed all things, he taught—to those who gathered

in silence and amazement—what he’d learned

of the beginnings of the universe . . .

The paintings listened, too, especially to the story of Cephalus and Procris. (She turns to him, Did it really happen that way?)

. . . of what caused things to happen, and what is

their nature: what god is, whence come the snows,

what is the origin of lightning bolts—

And the brave Pulitzer opened its doors so that the song would be seamless . . . from the world’s beginning to our day.

whether it is the thundering winds or Jove

that cleave the cloudbanks—and what is the cause

of earthquakes, and what laws control the course

of stars . . .

From day into night we read, our sentries at our side, for we are not just any marathoner. We crossed centuries, centuries we cannot even count, to find that

. . . in sum, whatever had been hid,

Pythagoras revealed.

Thanks to all who made this marathon possible. Bravissime. Bravissimi.--Lorin Cuoco

Today, the galleries at the Pulitzer are silent. After two days of reading Ovid’s Metamorphoses, I have become accustomed to having visitors, young and old, sitting on the stairs, children playing on the Rock Settee outside, and listening to our 73 readers recount the mythological transformations of gods and humans. It was a tremendously busy and happy occasion, so it is bittersweetto sit at my desk today not having to worry about scheduling readers or happy hour.

I was thrilled to meet the readers and to see my hard work from the past 3 months come together, almost seamlessly. There were a few glitches, but these were expected to happen in some way or another. The schedule changed on Saturday and Sunday with late or cancelled readers. Joan Lipkin from Uppity Theater Company graciously read for Obi Nwakanma, who was running late on Saturday. There was a vacant slot on Sunday, so Obi Nwakanma filled was able to fill in there. Tom Sudholt, the Morning Host of Classic 99, also subbed in for a canceled reader on Sunday. I, too, became a pinch-reader for a Sunday time slot.

It took less time to read the entire ancient text, than I had planned. Instead of 18.3 hours, our readers breezed through the marathon in 16 hours and 45 minutes. This was a wonderfully pleasant surprise, but created a mad dash for the readers, director, and producer at the end.

Finally, thank you to each St. Louisan who read and/or listened to the Metamorphoses. It was fabulous to see so many excited people in the Pulitzer galleries for their first or tenth time listening to the 2,000-year-old poem

I can’t wait for the next marathon reading at the Pulitzer. I wonder what text we will read next.

For more photos from the weekend, please visit the Pulitzer’s Flickr page.

Well, in any case, since 10am this morning, A Marathon Metamorphoses has been going full-throttle. I would like to tell you more, but I’m in a rush to listen to Stefene Russell, who begins in a few, so here are a couple video tidbits to tide over anyone out there glued to the computer, eagerly awaiting a blog update:

Prominent writer and David May Distinguished Professor of Emeritus William H. Gass kicks-off the marathon with the first 15-minute read at 10am.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2:00pm reader Richard Newman, Editor for River Styx, reflects on his fifteen minutes.

The Metamorphoses–like the Bible, like Shakespeare’s plays (which, of course, rely heavily on Ovid), like Dante or Chaucer–has remained a seminal work across the centuries because it renders something fundamental and elemental in the human experience. The stories capture an essence that makes the universe comprehensible in terms we understand: terms which weave together the intricacies of human relationship–of love, of hubris, of pain–and bring a particular resonance to the old adage: “nothing new under the sun.”

As a participant in the reading, I am grateful for the opportunity that this special event presents to take time from the frenetic pace of daily life to delve into one of the richest pieces of literature ever written–surrounded by the paintings of the Old Masters no less! As an elected official, particularly one who represents a region very engaged with the arts, as well as a member of the Cultural Trust Fund Board for the Missouri Arts Council, I find it incredibly exciting for the St. Louis community to host this innovative and challenging marathon reading of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Thank you to all those at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts who are both “pushing the envelope” in the arts community and sharing with the community-at-large one of the greatest literary treasures of all time.–Rachel Storch

I have contacted all of the readers to triple check their reading times, scheduled new readers (check the schedule to see when Paul Ha, Tyler Green, and David Dietrich are reading) and ease their concerns over pronunciation of the names, such as Leucothoe, Ocyrhoe, or Deianira. Never heard of Leucothoe before? She is a maiden who falls in love with Apollo. Of course, this could only be the set up for a tragedy, think Apollo’s infatuation with Daphne. If you want to hear more about why Leucothe morphs into a tree bearing frankincense, then come listen during the two o’clock hour on Saturday afternoon.

Also, I spoke on KDHX’s “Literature for the Halibut” (if you missed the show, catch the podcast) with Lorin Cuoco and Francesca Herndon-Consagra, interviewed with Kristen Hare of the St. Louis Beacon, and placed flyers at every imaginable place around St. Louis. It has been a busy last week of preparation.

The buzz from the St. Louis blogosphere shows excitement about the Ovid Marathon Reading too! Thanks to Chris King, HOK, Tunneling, Mike Murawski, and others for blogging about the “epic read.” I hope to see everyone there!