Recently I had the great privilege of delivering a lecture at my alma mater, St. John’s College, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as part of the Dean’s Lecture Series. The title of my lecture was “Exploring Aristotle’s Poetics through the eyes of a modern novelist.” In it, I explore Poetics, a 2,300-year-old text in which one of the greatest minds our civilization has produced lays out the basics of storytelling. I also discuss how much of what Aristotle says about writing still holds true today, and can be used by writers to help improve their own craft.
The lecture was based on an article I wrote several years ago, called “How Aristotle can help you become a better writer”, which is available here.
You can listen to the whole lecture here.