Fear of Flying: A Conference on the Work of Erica Jong

The Barnard Center for Research on Women is pleased to co-sponsor the next event in the Columbia Institute for Research on Women and Gender’s Feminist Classics Series. This spring, the Series explores the legacy of Barnard alum Erica Jong’s groundbreaking first novel Fear of Flying. An award-winning writer who has been integral in the creation of the contemporary feminine literature genre, Erica Jong ’63 is the author of eight novels, several of which have been worldwide bestsellers. Fear of Flying is the focus of this discussion on what makes a feminist classic an American classic. Panelists Min Jin Lee, Nancy K. Miller, Susan Rubin Suleiman, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Rebecca Traister, Aoibheann Sweeney, and Jong herself will take up this question and engage in a discussion on the impact that Fear of Flying has had on generations of feminist writers.

Erica Jong’s best known work, Fear of Flying, has sold more than 18 million copies and been translated into 30 languages. In 1998, Jong was honored with the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature. She has received Poetry magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize and the Deauville Award for Literary Excellence in France. In Italy, she was given the Sigmund Freud Award for Literature in 1975. In 1996, she and her family endowed the Erica Mann Jong ’63 Writing Fellows Fund, which supports the Writing Fellows and provided for renovations to the building that houses the Erica Mann Jong ’63 Writing Center, a program at Barnard that teaches talented student writers to help other students improve their writing.