A MacArthur Genius grant, a New York Times Best Book of the Year, Caméra d’Or at Cannes, and a New York Magazine Best Book of the Year—these are just some of the accolades that have been accumulated by the nine authors who came to OU for the three-day Neustadt Conference. As a student in the Neustadt class, I spent hours talking with them, and actually got to know them, not only as great artists, but also as interesting and fun people.

Claire Messud and I at the Neustadt Conference

World Literature Today, an illustrious international journal published by the University of Oklahoma, hosted these nine international authors as the jury to name next year’s winner of the biennial Neustadt Prize for International Literature, considered second in prestige to the Nobel Prize. The 2009 NSK Laureate for children’s literature, Vera B. Williams, also spoke at several events during the week.

It is hard to capture in words the significance of this event to the OU community, and to me individually. In the past 38 years, 26 Neustadt laureates, candidates and jurors have gone on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, proving that the prize continues to attract the brightest minds in letters to the University of Oklahoma.

But as I mentioned, statistics cannot impart how just plain fun the conference was. The first event was a banquet in the Sam Noble museum on Wednesday night, at which I and my parents sat at a table with Claire Messud and Sefi Atta, two of the Neustadt jurors. I was eager to sit next to Claire Messud, as I loved The Emperor’s Children and had chosen her as the author whom I would interview for my class assignment. But at the same time, I was nervous that she, as the author of a NY Times 10 Best Books of the Year and wife of renowned literary critic James Wood, would be intimidating and, possibly, a snob.

I need not have worried! Ms. Messud turned out to be one of the kindest, most enthusiastic people I have met in a while, and by the end of the conference, I felt I could call her a friend. In fact, I flatter myself that we share a similar personality, and over the three days, we talked for hours.

The other events of the conference lived up to the wonder and excitement I felt at the opening banquet. On Thursday evening, two jurors performed poetry readings accompanied by live music, and we saw a screening of juror and short story writer Etgar Keret’s film, Jellyfish, which won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes.

Friday, all nine of the jurors presented readings from their works, both published and unpublished, and Vera B. Williams spoke (the latter which I missed because I was engaged in an hour long conversation with Horacio Castellanos Moya, who is one of the highest regarded Salvadorian novelists today). We then had lunch with only the students of the Neustadt class and the 10 authors, an opportunity to really converse in an informal environment with the three authors at my table. Finally, the event closed with a book signing and one last chance to visit about writing, or really whatever topic floated into our heads and out in the ether.

The conference gave me one of the best experiences of my life, right here at OU, not because of the prestige surrounding it, which of course is impressive, but because of the incredible opportunity to interact with the authors, to both understand their work and then understand them as people over meals together and additional hours talking in the halls or lounges of the union. Other than the banquet and the lunch, all of the Neustadt conference events were open to the public, including OU students.

Unfortunately, it seems as though very few students know about this phenomenal, world-class opportunity that takes place each year on the OU campus (each semester, if you consider the Puterbaugh Conference, which has brought the likes of Orhan Pamuk and J. M. Coetzee to Norman). Those of us in the class, which numbers a mere 15 undergraduate and graduate students, were able to have stimulating class discussions and really get to know the authors on a one-on-one basis. But I can’t help but lament all the students who walked by unawares as we talked with these lauded authors in the halls of the union.

My last word, and the best advice I can think to give, is that, no matter your interests, there is likely a class or event that will allow you to capitalize on them in a whole new way here at OU. When you find that opportunity, sign up! It might add a bit to your schedule (and I am not advocating over-programming), but it just might be the most memorable experience of your college career, that unique occurrence that makes you think, “I cannot imagine anything I would rather be doing that being right here, right now.”