Surprise! MTV Features Frank McCourt as a Guest Lecturer

by Edward Nawotka, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 3/1/2004

This past Monday, mtvU, the recently re-branded television network formerly known as CTN: College Television Network, hosted the second in a series of programs that bring authors and other cultural celebrities into college classrooms to teach a surprise class, with Frank McCourt teaching a creative writing at Stonybrook College in Long Island, N.Y. In January, Jesse Jackson taught a surprise class on racism and the law to students at Spelman College.

McCourt told PW Daily, "Their eyes opened wide when I walked in and they started cheering and clapping. When I first heard about it. I thought, "'Me on MTV?,'" but they had been reading my book Angela's Ashes and were very satisfied that the author had showed up to talk to them." mtvU will broadcast a three-minute clip from the session repeatedly over the coming months.

Stephen Friedman, general manager of mtvU, told PW Daily that the new programming was prompted by research by mtvU that revealed college students were more interested in reading for pleasure than previously thought. "We learned some interesting things," he said, "We found that 83% of students are reading for pleasure, and they spend an average of $20 per month on nonrequired reading materials, both books and magazines. In contrast, just 63% of students are playing video games."

Friedman based the idea for mtvU's "Stand In" program on the Readers and Writers program run by PEN, which he worked on just out of college. "When I was at PEN, we did something similar with Terry McMillan, and I saw what happened when a live author walks into a room. People are really amazed."

Literature has not been as removed from MTV's programming as one might think. 'In the early 1990s, a handful of Donald Barthelme short stories--most notably "The Baby," read by comedian Denis Leary--were filmed as short segments that ran in between music videos.

Friedman says mtvU hopes to film more surprise visits to classrooms and is looking for authors to participate in the program. "We'd like to get iconic figures," Friedman told PW Daily, "like a Frank McCourt or a David Sedaris. Most of all, we're looking for an interesting text that would work with a teacher's curriculum. We hope that if we can play a role in fostering reading, the students will eat it up."

Authors interested in participating in mtvU's surprise teacher program may contact Sasha Lewis at (212) 654-8750.