Part of the 20th Annual Literature Conference for Teachers and Lovers of Good Books A lecture by Alexandra Bennett, Associate Professor of English at Northern Illinois University. She brings professional acting experience to classes, summer Shakespeare, workshops for school teachers, and Elderhostel seminars, and in each of these settings she has developed a following of grateful, enthusiastic, and exhausted students.

Part of the 20th Annual Literature Conference for Teachers and Lovers of Good Books A lecture by Don-John Dugas, an Associate Professor of English at Kent State University. His most recent book, Marketing the Bard: Reencountering Shakespeare and Print, 1660-1740, was the subject of a lively hour-long interview on National Public Radio.

“Modern man thinks he loses something—time—when he does not do things, quickly, yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains except to kill it.” - Erich Fromm                

As the holiday season approaches, along with it comes the frantic rush to knock so many items off our to-do-lists, buy so many gifts, attend so many parties, and send so many cards. Americans find themselves in a rush against time.

But what if you slow down—a lot? Christine Louise Hohlbaum’s new book, The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save Time in Our 24/7 World, addresses our relationship with time and how we might gain more of it by de-accelerating. She writes: “Time defines who we are. It is a reference point upon which everything else is based. Unfortunately, our relationship with time is a one-way street. We need time; it does not need us. Time’s measurement is a construct we created to help us make sense of our world.” Time management, she writes, is contradictory. “How can you manage something as uncontrollable as time?”