Barry Sanders at PMMNLS

I am not the only one to describe encounters with PNCA writer-in-residence Barry Sanders as magic. He is a great thinker, yes, but generous, open, and a warm conversationalist as well. PNCA President Tom Manley calls Barry Sanders, a “grand convivialist,” and he is, and Manley should know having worked with Sanders for many years at Pitzer College at Claremont before inviting him to PNCA. Sanders, who recently retired as professor of History of Ideas and English at Pitzer College at Claremont after 30-some years is also a Pulitzer-nominated (and prolific) author and Fulbright Senior Scholar.

A wide-ranging intellect, Sanders has taken on the evolution of the written word through the electronic age, race relations, and the history of laughter among other things in more than a dozen books. The 2009 Convocation address he delivered for PNCA was entitled, “Ha He Hi Ho Hu: A Very Brief History of Laughter” (hear it here or read his Sudden Glory, Laughter as Subversive History).

Sanders will speak tomorrow night at 7:30 PM as part of the Portland State University MFA Monday Night Lecture Series at Portland State University: Shattuck Hall Annex (1914 SW Park). I don’t know what he’ll be talking on Monday night, but I’ll be there to hear it.