The Guarnaschelli Lecture Series was made possible by a grant from Dr. John and Marty Guarnaschelli of Louisville, whose intent was to bring leading arts and humanities speakers to the Louisville community for appearances that are free and open to the public. The Guarnaschelli Lecture Series, which began in 1984, was Bellarmine’s first endowed lecture series.
Dr. John and Marty Guarnaschelli, both Bellarmine alumni, made the grant in memory of his parents. Both have served on the Bellarmine Board of Trustees.
Past Guarnaschelli lecturers include Isabel Allende, Wendell Berry, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ken Burns, James Dickey, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, Salman Rushdie, and many others. The full list is below.
Previous Lectures
- March 29, 1984: James Dickey
- Novelist, poet and author
- November 12, 1985: William L. Shirer
- Newspaperman, radio correspondent, and author
- March 12, 1987: Gwendolyn Brooks
- Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (first black woman to win)
- April 11, 1988: Harold Wilson
- Former British Prime Minister
- March 1, 1989: George McGovern
- Former member of House of Representatives and U.S. Senate and former presidential candidate
- September 19, 1989: Norman Mailer
- Pulitzer Prize-winning author
- October 22, 1990: Joyce Carol Oates
- Author and poet
- September 26, 1991: Ken Burns
- America's foremost documentary filmmaker
- March 11, 1993: Richard Rodriguez
- Author and journalist
- January 27, 1994: Seamus Heaney
- Irish poet, Nobel Prize-winner
- January 26, 1995: Wendell Berry
- Author
- February 13, 1996: Leslie Marmon Silko
- Native American novelist, historian, poet and acclaimed author
- March 5, 1996: Wendy Whelan
and Nilas Martins
- Prima Ballerina and Principal Ballet Artist
- February 4, 1997: Peter Matthiessen
- Author, environmentalist and activist
- April 14, 1998: William Styron
- Pulitzer Prize winning author (The Confessions of Nat Turner, Sophie's Choice)
- November 2, 1998: Kathleen Norris
- Author and poet
- March 29, 2000: Allen D. Glenn
- Author, educator, education technology expert
- October 3, 2001: John Dunne
- Author, teacher, theologian at Notre Dame
- September 18, 2002: Dr. Jared Diamond
- professor of physiology and Pulitzer Prize-winning author
- October 15, 2003: Billy Collins
- critically acclaimed poet and former U.S. Poet Laureate
- October 28, 2004: Isabel Allende
- internationally celebrated best-selling author
- November 2, 2005: Salman Rushdie
- author
- October 17, 2006: E.O. Wilson
- scientist and author
- October 29, 2009: Dava Sobel
- award winning author
- April 10, 2013: Roger Rosenblatt
- best-selling author, winner of George Polk Awards, Peabody Award, Robert F. Kennedy Book Prize and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
- October 25, 2017: Ari Shapiro
Co-host of NPR’s newsmagazine, All Things Considered. A frequent guest analyst on television news programs; an occasional singer.
- October 23, 2019: Dr. James A. Grymes, internationally respected musicologist, lecturer and author of “The Violins of Hope: Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour.”