2021 NICE podcast episodes
Listen below to the 2021 NICE project’s podcast episodes. On 30 September 2021, we recorded our Presentations Event, with special guests Deborah Petersen and Melinda Dubbs helping us present selected pieces. Corresponding videos can be found on our YouTube channel.
For more information about our annual literature-based project, please check out our main NICE page.
Earlier in 2021, we recorded our five Workshops, our behind-the-scenes discussions of our original eleven short-listed books, and the selection of the Final Four books and their stand-alone passages (one from each book). All of our 2021 NICE recordings are listed below, in order of most recent first.
2021 NICE four standalone passages can be read here.
The following 7 episodes are from our 5th Workshop, discussing Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, with special guest poet Deborah Petersen.
The following 5 episodes are from our 4th Workshop, discussing A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle, with special guest poet Deborah Petersen.
The following short 5 episodes are from our 3rd Workshop, discussing The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, with special guest poet Deborah Petersen.
The following short 8 episodes are from our 2nd Workshop, discussing Sula by Toni Morrison, with special guest poet Deborah Petersen.
The following episodes are from our 1st Workshop with special guest poet Deborah Petersen. This workshop focused on introducing the four books, with brief summaries of the stories and author bios.
The following episodes, Parts 29-32, feature discussion of choosing the Final Four stand-alone passages:
Download the Final Four passages quotes here:
The following episodes, Parts 15 – 28, feature discussions of potential passages in each of our Final Four books:
The following three episodes are feature choosing our Final Four books:
About 2021’s NICE books
Selecting the Final Four books is always hard, and this year was no exception. We know that in-depth discussions of Sula (1973) by Toni Morrison, The Yellow Wallpaper (1892; short story) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, A Wrinkle in Time (1962) by Madeleine L’Engle, and Tarzan of the Apes (1912) by Edgar Rice Burroughs will give 2021’s NICE project a lot of material to work with in workshops and in creating inspired new artwork of all genres and mediums of Artistic creation. As is usually true with classic literature, these four books are all beautifully written AND have a lot of problematic content in them. Exploring “the good, the bad, and the ugly” in classic literature and bringing those works alive and front and center in today’s world are hallmarks of our annual project’s main goals. We’re so excited about discussing 2021’s NICE books and passages!
It’s sometimes even harder to choose the Final Four stand-alone passages, one from each book. We start with dozens of quotes, and then discuss the pros and cons of using them in our NICE project. There are always a lot of passages that we absolutely love, but that we feel aren’t the best fit for the project. The stand-alone passages need to, well, stand alone. By that we mean there’s enough in each chosen passage to evoke reaction without reading the books in their entirety. We look for strong passages that represent things like: something relevant to the story or characters’ relationships, actions or emotions; exhibit larger themes or social issues; represent human nature; give creatives a lot of creative fodder for their inspired creations.
Below, you can see a list of our original eleven short-listed books, and listen to our ongoing podcast discussions for this year’s project.
2021 NICE short list of eleven books:
- Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley
- Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted (1892) by Frances E. W. Harper
- Sula (1973) by Toni Morrison
- The Yellow Wallpaper (1892; short story) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- A Wrinkle in Time (1962) by Madeleine L’Engle
- The Secret Garden (1911) by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- North and South (1854) by Elizabeth Gaskell
- Tarzan of the Apes (1912) by Edgar Rice Burroughs
- The Tale of Genji (written in the early 11th century) by Lady Murasaki Shikibu
- One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien años de soledad) (1967) by Gabriel García Márquez
- a single poem from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1890)
The following two episodes are our discussion of The Tale of Genji:
Content Note: Art, especially literature written in or set in historical time periods, may contain problematic content, including intolerance, discrimination, classism, violence, and abuse. We’ve recorded several @theroundtable episodes that specifically discuss racism and prejudice in general, and how to address problematic elements in literary classics and period books. Some of the questions we asked ourselves are: what’s really there, in classic literature? How do we view the book today vs when it was written/the setting? What is the value of reading books with problematic elements? You can listen to those episodes here: Discussions Against Racism.