2027 Morning Group Descriptions and schedule coming soon
(below are morning session seminars from 2026)
All groups meet Fri-Sun, 9-12
Contact individual group leaders for more information
Historical and Novel Fiction
Nancy Cunningham – nancy.cunningh@gmail.com
This year in the Historical Fiction Group we will be reading two old books and one new
one.
Day 1: Middlemarch by George Eliot was published in 1871
Day 2: Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust is the first volume of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past (also translated as In Search of Lost Time) was published in 1913 in French. The Lydia Davis translation was published in 2002
Day 3: Flashlight by Susan Choi was published in 2025
We’d love to have you join for all three days, or you are welcome to just come for the days we discuss a book you’ve read.
Pop Culture
Eric Ecklund – eecklund@francis.edu
This year the Pop Culture Morning Group will pay homage to our host city of Pittsburgh.
Our primary focus will be on how the award-winning show “The Pitt” presents and deals with a variety of important social issues in its first two seasons. Group members are asked to come prepared to talk about the issues they found most compelling and are encouraged to direct the group to how other pop culture sources (including the obvious
spiritual predecessor “ER”) dealt with similar situations. For our field trip this year, we will be visiting the Heinz History Center https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/, which is currently hosting the following exhibits:
- My America: An Illustrated Experience
- Pittsburgh’s Hidden History
- Mister Roger’s Neighborhood
- From Slavery to Freedom
Friday, 7/17
The group will discuss how various social issues were depicted in the first two seasons of
“The Pitt” (HBO)
Saturday, 7/18
Visit to the Heinz History Center
Sunday, 7/19
The group will meet to discuss the visit to the Heinz History Center and potential plans for next year’s group
Writing Retreat
Dorothy Hurlburt – dhurlburt1@gmail.com
Do you wish for a good block of time to develop or even complete a writing project? This seminar is for those who want to write and to create in an encouraging environment. Come with a specific project in mind, or in progress, whether it is a scholarly article, a set of poems, a memoir, novel, mixed-media artifact, or something else. During these sessions we will begin by sharing and exchanging ideas about our projects, then we will get down to writing. We will tailor the meeting according to the needs of participants with spontaneous opportunities for discussion, collaboration, or feedback. At the end of the morning the group will reconvene to talk about how it’s going. We would be happy to hear from people ahead of time about projects you are working on or how you would like to use the time.
Interested in leading a morning group? Contact Sandy at smcallister@sfhe.org