Steinbeck In Search of America series

Steinbeck and Charley at his Sag Harbor home.

Canio’s Cultural Cafe presents Steinbeck, In Search of America, a series of talks, films and more celebrating Sag Harbor’s Nobel Prize-winning writer, John Steinbeck.  All are welcome to participate.  It began last month with a talk by scholar Susan Shillinglaw on Steinbeck & the Importance of Home.  The Sag Harbor Cinema, John Jermain Library and The Church are all participating in this community celebration.

Sun. May 1, 4pm:  Sag Harbor Cinema Projections series on the Steinbeck Writers Center project: a panel moderated by Steve Hamilton, co-founder of Bay Street Theatre with Tommy John Schiavoni, Southampton Town Councilman; Bret Johnston, Director of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas in Austin; and Kathryn Szoka, co-owner of Canio’s Books. The discussion will focus on Steinbeck’s work as well as the campaign to create a world-class writing center in Steinbeck’s former home on Bluff Point Road. Afterwards, The Forgotten Village documentary will be screened.

Thurs. May 19, 6pm:  in the Rotunda at John Jermain Library. Discussion of The Moon Is Down, with guest lecturer Donald V. Coers on John Steinbeck’s World War II novel. Coers will discuss the relevance of this powerful resistance story today.   Richard Hart, Steinbeck Review editor, will join the discussion. You can listen HERE.

Donald V. Coers is professor of English at Sam Houston State University in Texas. He is author of John Steinbeck as Propagandist: “The Moon Is Down” Goes to War and After The Grapes of Wrath: Essays on John Steinbeck. The Moon is Down tells the story of a military occupation in a small town by an unnamed nation at war with England. A French language translation of the book was published illegally in Nazi-occupied France by a French Resistance publishing house. Numerous other editions were also secretly published across all of occupied Europe, including Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, and Italian versions (as well as a Swedish version); it was the best known work of U.S. literature in the Soviet Union during the war. Written with the purpose of motivating resistance movements in occupied countries, the book has appeared in at least 92 editions across the world.

Weds. May 25, 6pm: at the Sag Harbor Cinema, film screening of Steinbeck’s The Moon Is Down with Q & A following.

Sat. Sept. 10 – TBA:  Forum on Travels with Charley at The Church with Steinbeck scholar, Susan Shillinglaw. Shillinglaw is English professor at San Jose State University and former Director of the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California.

Sun. Sept. 11 – TBA:  Dramatic Readings from Steinbeck’s work, with music & celebration at Canio’s Lawn. Silent Auction fundraiser for Canio’s Cultural Cafe, an educational non-profit.

* Sag Harbor Cinema Steinbeck films: The Cinema will screen East of Eden (1955); Grapes of Wrath (1940); Viva Zapata! (1952) and The Pearl (1947). Schedule TBA.

To help support this series, a donation can be made to: Canio’s Cultural Cafe

The mission of Canio’s Cultural Cafe (CCC) is to support and engender community interest in the cultural arts, with an emphasis on literature, visual arts, and current events. The CCC will accomplish this by hosting lectures, workshops, seminars and other public forums that will include a diversity of artists, writers, educators, independent scholars, students, and community members who might not otherwise be heard.  Canio’s Cultural Cafe is a 501 (c)(3).

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Preserving Steinbeck’s Home

“Remember him, Remember HIM,” were Elaine Steinbeck’s parting words to Sag Harbor’s Nada Barry at John Steinbeck’s funeral.

You can you help us remember John with a small but mighty donation HERE.

We are at the brink of an extraordinary opportunity — we have the chance to save his home in Sag Harbor as a Writers’ Retreat for future generations, spearheaded by Canio’s Books and the Sag Harbor Partnership, and aided by a prestigious University willing to guide and further fund its development once purchased. We are not far from making an acceptable bid to the willing seller, but we need your help to get us to the finish line.

We continue to seek additional pledges and funding sources. And, because we have made good progress, it is now possible for everyone to participate with a small but mighty donation and join the team.  Our initial small donation goal is $250,000. 

Would you please stand with us and donate $10, $50, or even $100 or more if you can, to make the Steinbeck Writers’ Retreat a reality, and save this international treasure?    

If our efforts to purchase the Steinbeck home do not succeed, all funds collected will be donated to the Sag Harbor Food Pantry and Volunteer Fire Department, something we believe Steinbeck would have blessed. 

We are so close, and with your help, we firmly believe that we will realize our goal to preserve Steinbeck’s legacy, his iconic homestead, and to remember John. 
Thank you for your time and your support! 

Please DONATE HERE

If you can make a pledge of $500 or more please contact us directly at info@sagharborpartnership.org for information. All donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

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2021

Imagine wrapping John Steinbeck’s home on Bluff Point with a gigantic red bow and presenting it to the literary world as a gift for the ages. This you could do today, February 27, Steinbeck’s birthday, with a cool $17.9 million, the asking price for the waterfront property where the Nobel Prize-winner once lived. In a more cultured world, that property and especially Steinbeck’s writer’s studio would be preserved for its world-wide literary value. Steinbeck wrote his last novel, The Winter of our Discontent, in that studio he named Joyous Garde, looking out on Sag Harbor Cove. His book Travels with Charley begins when Hurricane Donna kicks up those same waters and threatens his beloved boat, named for his wife, The Fayre Eleyne.  So maybe we band together with half a million friends and split the costs, however that would work out? Maybe squat the property? Better yet, let’s get local, regional, national agencies interested enough to add their voices and their coffers to this worthy cause. Sag Harbor village prides itself on being a writers’ village. Steinbeck was deeply fond of our place, and even founded our first Whalers festival. Couldn’t the village, the state and beyond recognize the importance of preserving this literary treasure? We sure hope so. Happy Birthday, John Steinbeck!

Listen HERE as co-owner Kathryn Szoka joins the Southampton Press Group to discuss saving Steinbeck’s place.

SIGN this PETITION to SAVE his Sag Harbor home. Sign NOW. Share widely. Many thanks!