Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture

In five novels and seven works of nonfiction ranging from memoir to literary history to biographical study, Susan Cheever demonstrates emotional intensity, bravery, and compassion. Her nonfiction books include My Name is Bill, a biography of Alcoholics Anonymous cofounder Bill Wilson—a “national treasure” (Kurt Vonngeut); Note Found in a Bottle, a memoir about her own drinking and recovery; and Home Before Dark, an “intimate, deeply felt, and often harrowing” (The New York Times Book Review) memoir of her father, Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer John Cheever. A Guggenheim fellow and a director of the Board of the Yaddo Corporation, Cheever was also nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her new book is a reconsideration of the life and work of preeminent 20^th century poet e.e. cummings.