Reading Houses: What Architecture Tells Us about Ourselves
A Chautauqua lecture sponsored by the Oregon Council for the Humanities (2007-2010)
1 hour
Though we build our houses to provide shelter, we also use them to express
an aspect of the self. If the houses we choose to live in tell us what is
important to us, then by reading them we should be able to know something about
their inhabitants. In this entertaining presentation, Diana Coogle looks at
houses from Jefferson's Monticello to the Alcotts' Orchard House, from two houses
of 19th-century Swedish painters to the architecture of le Corbusier, from Henry
David Thoreau's Walden to her own mountain home to see how the architecture reveals
the personalities of the indwellers.
Food for Thought
A Chautauqua lecture sponsored by the Oregon Council for the Humanities (2006-2009)
1 hour
Food is our most basic biological need and a source of infinite pleasure, but food has many other meanings besides in relation to the body.
In this one-hour presentation writer Diana Coogle takes examples from literature, history, film, and her own kitchen to explore the other meanings of food: its relationship
to community, to religion, to tradition, and, in the supposed aphrodisiacs, to sex.
Flora: From Goddess to Genus
A Chautauqua lecture sponsored by the Oregon Council for the Humanities (2004-2007)
1 hour
A classically educated playwright and essayist, Coogle has developed
a highly personal relationship with nature. In this program she delves
more deeply into literary explorations of what the writer Thomas Berry
calls “human-earth relations.” Beginning with John McPhee’s depiction
of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess, Coogle takes audiences on a
literary journey across history and the continents. Whether she is
discussing the ancient goddess Flora or personifications of nature
found in the Romantic poetry of Wordsworth, Byron, or Keats, Coogle
provides historical insight and poetical passages that encourage audience
members to explore their own individual relationships with nature.
(From the Oregon Chautauqua Catalog by the Oregon Committee for the
Humanities)
Demons and Devas on the Writer's Path
A 1-hour talk
In this 1-hour talk, Diana Coogle uses illustrations both from famous
writers throughout the history of English literature and from her
own experiences to examine the demons and devas writers encounter.
She looks first at the demons: the internal demons - the voices within
us that would make us quit writing ("I don't have anything to say,"
"Nobody cares," "I'm not good enough," with its corollary, "It's not
real writing"); the external demons, time and money ("I really could
be a writer - if only the kids didn't need me so much, if only I didn't
have to work this stupid job, if only I had time, if only I had money");
and the external personal demons, the four "d"s of drink, drugs, despair,
and depression as well as debilitating illness, mental instability,
geographic isolation, the vilification of society, and so on.
Then she looks at the devas, both the internal ones - our dedication
and conviction in spite of the demons - and the external ones: the
praisers and encouragers; the pushers (who may be irritating but who
are important devas, nonetheless); and the providers.
Finally, she looks briefly at two devas of a different kind: that
which inspires us to write and the lucky breaks we get along the way.
She closes with a look at the Ultimate Deva, that ineluctable something
that keeps us writing even when we think we don't want to any more.
Swedish Landscapes and Literature
A Chautauqua lecture sponsored by the Oregon Committee for the
Humanities (2002-2006)
1 hour
Oregon author, teacher, and radio commentator Diana Coogle has often
been a guest lecturer at an international master’s degree program
for social work at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her passionate
belief in the value of literature to enhance lives and deepen thinking
has informed her travels throughout Sweden, and this Chautauqua draws
from those travel experiences and her love of Swedish literature.
Coogle’s lecture and readings introduce the dashing romanticism
of Novel Prize winner Selma Lagerlof’s Gosta Belingssaga, the
haunted landscapes of Vilhelm Moberg’s The Emigrants, and the
Gothenburg cityscape of contemporary novelist Marianne Frederiksson’s
Simon and the Oaks. Along the way participants will move from the
gape of the tourist to enter the conscience of a place, traveling
outside the words on the page and into the landscape of literature.
Charles Dickens and our Old-fashioned Christmas
30 minutes
Year after year Christmas brings back carolers and Santa Claus, wreaths
and stars and Christmas trees with angels on top. Although Christmas
is so full of traditions it seems to have always been as it is, in
this lively lecture Diana Coogle shows us how much Charles Dickens
is responsible for Christmas as we know it today by looking at Christmas
during the Puritan era and then at how Charles Dickens' writings helped
pull Christmas back into a time of merriment.
Am I a Writer Yet?
A 20-minute talk for young writers (middle school, high school)
In exploring the question, "How do we know when we are 'real writers?'"
author and radio commentator Diana Coogle takes us through the journey
of her writing life, from the time when she was a child and said she
wanted to be a writer through her scholarly writings in college, her
"fake teen-ager" writings as a schizophrenic, the beginning of her
work as a commentator on Jefferson Public Radio, the self-publishing
of her first book and its recognition as a finalist in the Oregon
Book Awards, and, most recently, the publication of her second book,
"Living with All My Senses: 25 Years of Life of the Mountain." It's
a fascinating story, tied together with the refrain, "Am I a Writer
Yet?"
So You Think You Want To Be a Writer?
20-minute talk for young writers (middle school)
In this amusing talk, Diana Coogle takes a tongue-in-cheek approach
to the career of writing by pointing out to her young audience all
the reasons they might reconsider being a writer: the late hours,
the loneliness, the hair-pulling sessions at trying to think of the
right word, the fame, etc. In mock consternation, she urges them,
in a sort of Br'er-Rabbit-in-the-briar-patch approach, to consider
any other career besides writing, with the result, of course, that
young writers are more encouraged than ever to become writers.
Public Speaking as Avocation
By Diana Coogle
My avocation of public speaking started with my high school valedictorian
speech. College teaching, which I have done for years, is a form of
public speaking, as is my radio work, which has given me experience
before audiences (albeit invisible ones) and with microphones. Reading
my commentaries weekly on public radio has helped me develop a good
speaking voice and has made my name known throughout northern California
and southern Oregon. Being chair of the Oregon Chapter Sierra Club
increased that name recognition and brought me often before the public
as a speaker.
Since1986 I have been called upon as a speaker, panelist, or panel
moderator for many diverse organizations, including the Josephine
County Public Library, Arts Council of Southern Oregon, National Forest
Service (for an ecology conference), Audubon Society, Sierra Club,
Southern Oregon Psychologists Association, Southern Oregon University,
Rogue Community College, and Grants Pass High School. I have spoken
on topics ranging from women in the environmental movement to the
literary influence of my father, from James Joyce to the Dickensian
Christmas.
After my first book became a finalist for an Oregon Book Award in
1999 and my second book was published last fall, requests for speaking
engagements increased: as keynote speaker for the Three Rivers Young
Writers Conference, as guest speaker for the Willamette Writers, as
the subject of an hour-long public radio interview, and for book readings.
Though I have enjoyed every speaking engagement, the most exciting
was introducing Ken Kesey at Medford's Craterian Theater. It was an
honor to introduce Kesey and a thrill to speak before 800 people,
but the private triumph was that as the audience filed out after the
lecture, several people told me they had enjoyed my talk more than
Kesey's. (Sorry, Kesey.)
My experience in theater has also enhanced my ability to speak well
before audiences. I have acted in several community theater productions,
have directed a number of plays, and have done numerous public readings.
I understand stage presence and am poised, comfortable, and enthusiastic
on stage.
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