Here comes rhymin' Simon.
Singer-songwriter Paul Simon will give the 2013 Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature at Emory University on Feb. 10-12, 2013, the school announced Thursday.
Simon's selection to deliver the talks aims to “slightly open up the concept of what literature is,” lectures director Joseph Skibell, an Emory associate professor of English and creative writing, said in a statement.
An international selection committee discussed song as a part of world literature, concurring that Simon was the obvious first choice, according to the school. Simon’s lectures will address, in part, an overview of the historical antecedents of the music made between 1966 and 1970.
Last year, Simon, 70, released “So Beautiful or So What,” a CD that made many critic's Top 10 lists. He made two well-received tour stops in metro Atlanta, one at Chastain Park Amphitheatre in May and a second at Gwinnett Arena in December.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of his biggest solo album, "Graceland," several expanded versions are being issued June 5. And a documentary revisiting the cross-cultural album's creation, "Under African Skies," is to air on A&E this spring.
The Ellmann Lectures are a series of ticketed talks that are open to the public. Tickets will be available near the end of Emory’s fall semester.
Ellmann lecturers have included Nobel Prize laureates Seamus Heaney (1988) and Mario Vargas Llosa (2006), Salman Rushdie (2004), Umberto Eco (2008) and Margaret Atwood (2010).
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