The 2021 Levy Event

The Fifth Annual Levy Event at Portland State University
 

Everybody Reads: The Last Unicorn

Sunday, May 9, 2021  | 3:00 pm - 4:15 pm PT

 

We invite you to read The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle’s fantasy classic, and attend a worldwide discussion of the book guided by our scholar panelists, held on Zoom.

 

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

1. Read the book. Go ahead and start reading! The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle is widely available! Purchase through your favorite bookseller!

2. Join the conversation on our Facebook group. As you get to know the Unicorn, Shmendrick the Magician, and Beagle’s other unforgettable characters, share your thoughts on our Facebook page. We’ll be posting our own responses there in advance of the live discussion on May 9. 

3. Register. This event is free with prior registration and will be held on Zoom. Please go to our registration page.

4. Log in on May 9 and participate in the community wide discussion guided by scholars of fantasy literature.

 

Last Unicorn book cover

"The Last Unicorn" by Peter S. Beagle

 

Professor Michael Weingrad

Michael Weingrad

About the book:

"The Last Unicorn" (1968), by Peter S. Beagle 

“The Last Unicorn is the best book I have ever read. You need to read it. If you’ve already read it, you need to read it again.”

- Patrick Rothfuss, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

"The Last Unicorn is a fantasy for these times. The novel doesn’t take place in a believable alternate world with clear rules and boundaries, but in a messy one more akin to ours. It’s not epic fantasy, but applied fantasy—which is to say, readers aren’t supposed to get lost in its invented world. We are supposed to import its lessons to our own world. In this uncertain age, when truth and falsehood are just rapidly converging talking points on the same blurry continuum, and wishful thinking is hopelessly mixed up with reality, The Last Unicorn urges audiences to do the things that need doing anyway, muddling through as best we can."

- YOSEF LINDELL is a writer living in the Washington, D.C., area. His site is yoseflindell.wordpress.com.

"Peter S. Beagle has been writing for 60 years but he will always be known above all, as the author of The Last Unicorn, the 1968 fantasy classic. With its idiosyncratic yet archetypal characters such as the hapless magician Schmendrick, the compassionate Molly Grue, and the unicorn herself, The Last Unicorn is the most beloved book on many a reader’s shelf."

- Michael Weingrad

Learn more about Peter S. Beagle at his site: https://www.beagleverse.com/

Hosted by Professor Michael Weingrad 

Professor of Judaic Studies, Portland State University, Michael Weingrad is the author of American Hebrew Literature: Writing Jewish National Identity in the United States and the editor and translator of Letters to America: Selected Poems of Reuven Ben-Yosef. He is a regular contributor to the Jewish Review of Books and Mosaic magazine. He is currently working on a book about Jews and fantasy literature. A selection of his recent writing can be found at www.investigationsandfantasies.com.

 

Professor Weingrad is joined by a panel of scholars to spark community discussion

Tamar Hess

Tamar Hess is Sidney and Betty Sarah Berg senior lecturer of Hebrew and chair of the Department of Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has studied Hebrew autobiography as in her Self As Nation: Contemporary Hebrew Autobiography (Brandies UP, 2016), and is currently engaged in a study of contemporary Hebrew feminist orthodox poetry. 

Maud Kozody 2

Maud Kozodoy is a Senior Editor on the staff of the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, and was recently Senior Editor at Inference: International Review of Science. Her background is in medieval Jewish history and the history of science. She received a Ph.D. in Medieval Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and her book, The Secret Faith of Maestre Honoratus: Profayt Duran and Jewish Identity in Late Medieval Iberia, was published by UPenn Press in 2015.

Adam Rovner

Adam Rovner is Associate Professor of English and Jewish Literature at the University of Denver, where he has taught since 2008. His acclaimed book, In the Shadow of Zion: Promised Lands Before Israel, was published by NYU Press in December 2014. Adam’s academic articles and general interest journalism have appeared in numerous outlets in the US and UK.

The Fifth Annual Levy Event is presented by the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at Portland State University with the support of the Lawrence Levy and Pamela Lindholm-Levy Judaic Studies Programming Fund, and a grant from the Jerry & Helen Stern Grandchildren's Fund at the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation.

PSU English Department
Oregon Jewish Community Foundation logo small high res
PSU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Related Event - THE 2021 LORRY I. LOKEY PROGRAM

Fantasy Literature and the Holocaust: A Conversation with Special Guest Ruth Franklin

May 6, 2021 | Thursday 11:00 am PT

Join us for an intriguing conversation between Professor Michael Weingrad and special guest Ruth Franklin, as they discuss aspects of Holocaust portrayal in fantasy literature.