Sophomore Literary Festival
Known as the Notre Dame Literary Festival since 2004, the Sophomore Literary Festival held its inaugural event in 1967. Sophomore J. Richard Rossie envisioned a literary festival at Notre Dame that would span two weeks, the first week comprising academic events presented by scholars on the subject of a deceased author. The second week would consist of workshops and lectures or readings conducted by living authors. Having been impressed while attending a William Faulkner symposium at the University of Mississippi while a high school student, Rossie worked with faculty member Dr. James Silver, who had known Faulkner personally, to invite scholars from all over North America to the first Sophomore Literary Festival in May 1967.
Headed by sophomore John Mroz, the 1968 Festival would set the model for the future, consisting of a week of lectures and readings by major authors. Held in March and April, the participating authors were Granville Hicks, Norman Mailer, Ralph Ellison, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, William Buckley Jr. and Wright Morris. Coupled with national events, it must have been an unforgettable event. On opening day, President Johnson announced that he would not run for reelection and on Thursday, Robert Kennedy arrived on campus to campaign in anticipation of the upcoming Indiana Democratic primary, both giving the visiting authors fodder for discussion. Norman Mailer held the world premier of his new movie Beyond the Law in Stepan Center, complete with a contingent of actors, attracting an audience of over 4,000. Dampening the mood of the festival, late Thursday afternoon everyone learned of the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis. Scheduled later that evening, Joseph Heller read somber passages from his novel Catch-22. Kurt Vonnegut's humorous presentation raised the spirits of those attending Friday afternoon in the Memorial Library auditorium.
Over the years, the Sophomore Literary Festival has attracted major authors including winners of the National Book Awards for Fiction, Nonfiction or Poetry; the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize. Many authors have fond memories of the festival and some have written about it. Granville Hicks wrote in his Saturday Review article (May 4, 1968):
“I think that all of us, speakers and students alike, felt that something important had happened in the course of the week. The sophomores, as the program of the Festival proclaimed, had dared to dream, and thanks to the devotion of a score of young men, the dream came closer to realization than most dreams do. In a week remarkable for confusion and disaster, the Festival offered glimmers of hope.”
You can find more information about the first twenty years of the Festival in Linda DeCicco's book SLF Album.
