Jonathan Lethem Named David Foster Wallace’s Professor Successor

By Maryann Yin 

lethem author.JPGNovelist Jonathan Lethem (pictured) will be taking over the late David Foster Wallace’s position as as the Roy Edward Disney Professor in Creative Writing at Pomona College on the sunny west coast of California. Quite a change considering the “Bard of Boerum Hill” often incorporates the influence of Brooklyn in his writing.

At a New York Public Library event, Lethem explained to the audience: “Hard to imagine Lethemless Brooklyn…I have been living, for the last three years, on the street I grew up on. It’s almost embarrassingly fetishistic. But I always liked looking out the window and seeing the pavement on which I played stickball, the shape of the buildings, and the physical feeling of the tree-lined streets and the crooked pavement. It means a lot to me in ways that are inexpressible.”

Wallace came on board at Ponoma College in 2002 as the first Roy Edward Disney Professor in Creative Writing. Looking over the comments on the website Rate My Professors, Wallace was hailed “an unbelievable teacher” from several students. No pressure to fill those big shoes, Mr. Lethem. (Via the New York Post)