Registration is open for the Tampa Bay Great Books Conference Weekend, January 19-21, 2018:  “Vietnam: Looking Back Through Three Vietnamese Novelists”

While geographically only slightly larger than the State of New Mexico, Vietnam will always have life-changing significance for American “Baby Boomers” and those within a few years of that population bubble.  Some Boomers fought there…died there…while others mounted their first political crusades domestically to end the conflict.  The American perspective on the Vietnam experience is well-chronicled, most recently in Ken Burns’ PBS series, “The Vietnam War.”

Seldom, however, have Americans paused to consider the conflict from the point of view of the Vietnamese, and that is precisely the opportunity that awaits us in the Tampa Bay Great Books Conference Weekend on January 19-21, 2018:  “Vietnam: Looking Back Through Three Vietnamese Novelists.”

Venue for all conference sessions is the Hilton St. Petersburg/Bayfront. A Friday night  reception and Saturday luncheon are included in the conference registration fee, as well as copies of the three texts to be discussed:  The Sympathizer (the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Viet Thank Nguyen); The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam (by Bao Dinh); and Paradise of the Blind (by Duong Thu Huong). All discussions will be led by moderators trained in the Great Books method of “shared inquiry.”

Deeply-discounted overnight accommodations ($160, single; $180, double) are available to conference registrants and can be arranged by contacting the Hilton directly at (727)-894-5000.

Conference registration fee is just $189; with an additional $79 fee for non-participating guests.  Contact Patrick DeMarco (pdemarco@tampabay.rr.com) for more information, or click here for the registration form and all the details.