Dear Chautauquans, Next week is Thanksgiving, and I owe you all a big thank you. Not only do you gather every weekday morning each summer as the most engaged and thoughtful audience around, you are uncommonly generous in sharing your ideas, suggestions and connections with us as we move through our yearly planning cycles. Planning and executing a 45-lecture series is truly a community effort, and it is an honor and a privilege to steward that process and shape our storied Chautauqua Lecture Series platform. We of course are right in the thick of that work for 2026, with much...
Chautauqua Institution’s YouTube channel is introducing a new membership structure designed to strengthen the sustainability of our digital programming and make it easier for viewers to choose their level of access. You know the value of Chautauqua’s programming — and we heard you, time and time again in recent months, when you said that the ability to experience that programming online is important to you. Now, we’re asking for your help in securing the future of this work and the experience of Chautauqua at your fingertips. The easiest way to do that is to join at the sustaining membership level,...
Chautauqua Institution has named Stephine Hunt Interim Michael I. Rudell Director of Literary Arts, starting on Jan. 1, 2026. This comes following her impactful tenure as manager, and then managing director, of literary arts, where she has played a key role in shaping the Institution’s literary programming alongside the outgoing artistic director, Kwame Alexander. As interim director, Hunt will oversee programming of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, the platform that honors at least nine outstanding books of fiction, nonfiction, essays and poetry with community discussions and author presentations every summer — and which celebrates its sesquicentennial in 2028; the...
Dear Chautauquans, For more than 150 years, Chautauqua has been a place where people gather to learn, reflect, grow and connect. We have weathered periods of social change, economic challenges and cultural transformation because we have always adapted — thoughtfully and deliberately — to meet the needs of the moment while safeguarding our mission for the future. That same spirit of resilience guides us now. As we look ahead to the 2026 Summer Assembly and beyond, we are making strategic programming decisions designed to strengthen Chautauqua’s financial foundation, protect the experiences that matter most, and position the Institution for another...
Celebrated Author Will Give Public Reading at Chautauqua Institution on Aug. 15 Chautauqua Institution proudly announces Whale Fall: A Novel (Pantheon Books) by Elizabeth O’Connor as the 2025 winner of The Chautauqua Prize. Awarded annually since 2012, the Prize celebrates a book of fiction, literary/narrative nonfiction, or a book-length collection of poetry that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and honors the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts. As author of this year’s winning book, O’Connor receives $7,500 and will be presented with the Prize during a celebratory event and public reading at 3:30 p.m. EDT Friday,...
Chautauqua Institution is pleased to announce the highly anticipated black box theater in the Roe Green Theater Center is to be named in honor of Chautauqua Institution’s 18th president Michael E. Hill, who served from 2017 through 2025, and his husband Peter M. Korns. The Michael E. Hill & Peter M. Korns Theater, a state-of-the-art intimate performance space seating 99 patrons, will be home to a full slate of programming during the season and will operate year-round dedicated to the development of original works. The theater is made possible through a generous gift from longtime Chautauquans and devoted supporters...
Did you know that if you mistakenly put your coffee grounds in your recycling bin it could result in a whole truckload of recyclables being diverted to the landfill? Cross contamination of recyclables by non-recyclable items is one of the biggest reasons recycling rates are so poor. Cross contamination is particularly high at Chautauqua, perhaps owing to our many visitors who may not be familiar with what is and is not recyclable in our community. For the 2025 season, thanks to a new partnership with Chautauqua’s main waste management company, Casella, we’re taking action to reduce cross contamination and improve...
Chautauqua Institution is pleased to announce seven exceptional books as the 2025 finalists for The Chautauqua Prize, now in its 14th year: In the first year considering full-length poetry collections alongside works of fiction and literary nonfiction, this finalist list celebrates the variety and vitality of the literary world in what was yet another year of a record-breaking number of submissions from publishers, agents and authors. “This year’s list of finalists for The Chautauqua Prize is composed of narratives of revelation and surprise,” said guest judge Andrew Krivák. “On every level — form, content and voice — these authors have...
Emerging Writer to Give Lecture, Reading of Winning Work on Aug. 8 In another record-breaking year for submissions, Chautauqua Institution is delighted to announce “Bread, Meat, and Water” by Stefan Bindley-Taylor as the winner of the 2025 Chautauqua Janus Prize. “Bread, Meat, and Water” was selected from 11 finalists as the winner by this year’s guest judge Marita Golden, who described the short story as one that illustrates “a world in which everything is changing all at once and all the time, challenging and reshaping values, and dreams even as the foundational impulses that connect us as humans prevail.” ...
Chautauqua Literary Arts and the Department of Education at Chautauqua Institution are pleased to announce 11 finalists for the 2025 Chautauqua Janus Prize. To be awarded this summer for the eighth time, the Janus Prize has enjoyed a steady increase of interest among emerging writers and this year saw another record-breaking number of submissions. This year, 210 writers entered work to be considered for the prize that looks to celebrate an emerging writer’s single work of short fiction or nonfiction for daring formal and aesthetic innovations that upset and reorder readers’ imagination. The 11 finalists for the 2025 Janus Prize and their...
