David Greenberg, Hiett Prize winner

This past Tuesday evening’s talk on David Mamet by myself and University of Dallas theater chair Patrick Kelly was re-scheduled by the the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture when the rain and hail and flooding threatened to wash away us all. (A few people still showed up — my kind of crowd: willing to risk drowning for a literary talk.) The talk has been re-scheduled for next Tuesday, March 25 at 6 p.m. Call 214-871-2440  for information.  

We are going to discuss Mamet for two evenings (the second session is Tuesday, April 1) to help prepare the Institute’s audience for Mamet’s appearance at the gala Hiett Prize presentation April 8. This year’s winner is David Greenberg, historian (Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image), biographer (Calvin Coolidge) and a professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University, perhaps best known for his book, Presidential Doodles.

The Hiett comes with an award of $50,000 and is meant to encourage a person whose work in the humanities shows great promise and contains a public element related to contemporary culture.