New York, NY – August 2, 2010 – The greatest Arab poet and the greatest Israeli novelist. New novels (and debut New York readings) by Jonathan Franzen, Nicole Krauss and Salman Rushdie. Conversations with V.S. Naipaul and Rosanne Cash. The Great Gatsby (via a sneak preview of Gatz), Madame Bovary and the first English translation of Dr. Zhivago in fifty years. And – speaking of winter – Ian Frazier on Siberia. Centenary celebrations of Tennessee Williams, Elizabeth Bishop and Czeslaw Milosz. Rare appearances by Carlos Fuentes (who has a new novel out), Maxine Hong Kingston and John McPhee. Plus Margaret Atwood, Galway Kinnell and Joyce Carol Oates.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the 92Y Unterberg Poetry Center’s 2010⁄2011 season (detailed below).
As you’ll see, literary fans of all stripes can find something to embrace this season at 92Y— whether they’re classics devotees, poetry lovers, modern fiction fans, New Yorker–philes, or theater junkies.
2010⁄11 Reading Series & Literary Events
Mon, Sep 20, 8 pm, $27 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Margaret Atwood
Who knew that the young girl who passed her time in the backwoods of Quebec reading pocketbook mysteries, Grimm’s Fairy Tales and comics would grow up to become Canada’s best-known novelist? Margaret Atwood might have had an inkling. The author of the critically-acclaimed novels The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake, kicks off 92Y’s Poetry Center season with a reading from her most recent book, The Year of the Flood (Knopf Doubleday), which just came out in paperback.
Mon, Sep 27, 8 pm, $19 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
An Evening of Gatsby with Elevator Repair Service
“The Great Gatsby meets The Office” said the Boston Globe about Gatz – a six-hour drama in which every line of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel is read aloud by members of the theater group Elevator Repair Service. ERS sends actor Scott Shepherd and director John Collins to 92Y to perform a piece from Gatz (a week before its New York première) and discuss the production with the Public Theater’s Oskar Eustis.
Mon, Oct 4, 8 pm, $19 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
An Evening of Madame Bovary — with Lydia Davis
For true fans of Literature (with a capital “L”), Madame Bovary never gets old. And, in this case she’s brand new again, as Lydia Davis (an acclaimed author in her own right), unveils her new translation – and the 20th in English – of Flaubert’s classic novel.
Thu, Oct 7, 8 pm, $27 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
The Lyricist’s Voice: Rosanne Cash
“Driven by a deep love and obsession with language, poetry and melody, I had first wanted to be a writer, in a quiet room, setting depth charges of emotion in the outside world, where my readers would know me only by my language.” So says singer-songwriter extraordinaire Rosanne Cash in her new memoir Composed (Penguin Group). Cash sits down with writer A.M. Homes for a conversation about her life and music.
Mon, Oct 11, 8 pm, $19 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
David Grossman
Grossman is not only the Israeli novelist of the moment, he’s also (along with Amos Oz) a leading voice calling for Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, and he just won the Frankfurt Peace Prize (in Literature). Brooklynite Paul Auster introduces Grossman’s first New York reading of To The End of the Land (which just came out in English). Of the book, Auster says, “Flaubert created his Emma, Tolstoy made his Anna, and now we have Grossman’s Ora—as fully alive, as fully embodied, as any character in recent fiction.…Wrenching, beautiful, unforgettable.”
Thu, Oct 14, 8:15 pm, $19 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Paul Muldoon & Don Paterson
Poets don’t go into the poetry business for the money – they do it to be published in The New Yorker. Paul Muldoon is the man currently presiding over The New Yorker’s poetry selections. He also happens to be a noted poet himself; and he reads from his new book, Maggot (Aug. 2010, Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Muldoon is joined by fellow Scotsman Don Paterson, who reads from his new book, Rain (FSG). Paterson, the author of such collections as Nil Nil and God’s Gift to Women, won the (U.K.) 2010 Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry (started by King George in 1933).
Mon, Oct 18, 8 pm, $27 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
V. S. Naipaul
The Times of London called V.S. Naipaul one “of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945.” That said, he was also the one who dressed down Iris Murdoch during a dinner with Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street, told George Lucas “I do not know Star Wars, I am not interested in films,” and has made enemies of fellow writers and former mistresses. He has a new book out — The Masque of Africa (Sept. 2010, Knopf Doubleday) — which he discusses for the first time in New York.
Mon, Oct 25, 8:15 pm, $19 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Adonis
Quick: name the Arab Word’s greatest living poet. OK, we’ll tell you. It’s Syria’s Adonis, a pioneer of modern Arabic poetry and a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize. Now 80 and living in Paris, Adonis makes a rare New York appearance to read (in Arabic) from his new collection, Selected Poems (Oct. 2010, Yale University Press).
Mon, Nov 1, 8:15 pm, $19 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
An Evening of Doctor Zhivago – with Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
Omar Sharif. Julie Christie. Snowy, revolutionary Russia. These are the images that come to mind when one thinks of the classic 1965 film Dr. Zhivago. But several years before it was made into a movie, Dr. Zhivago was a book by Boris Pasternak, written in Russian. There have been many translations of the novel over the last 50 years, but remarkably, none in English. Fortunately, noted translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have stepped in to fill the void, and they read from their new English translation of the Pasternak novel at 92Y.
Mon, Nov 8, 8 pm, $19 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Nicole Krauss & Cynthia Ozick
Krauss, the poster girl for Brooklyn’s young (and maddeningly talented) literary scene, is the author of the universally-praised The History of Love. She does the first New York reading from her new book, Great House (Oct. 2010, W.W. Norton & company) at 92Y. Joining Krauss is Cynthia Ozick, who reads from her new book, Foreign Bodies.
Mon, Nov 15, 8 pm, $27 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Jonathan Franzen & Lorrie Moore
He spurned the Oprah Book Club, appeared in a Simpson’s episode, and wrote The Corrections, which was seemingly everywhere in 2001. Jonathan Franzen is back with a new book, Freedom (Aug. 2010, FSG), and this event marks its NYC debut reading. Who could split the bill with Franzen and not be upstaged? Lorrie Moore. She reads from her most recent novel, A Gate at the Stairs (Knopf Doubleday).
Mon, Nov 22, 8 pm, $27 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Salman Rushdie
Mad Men may have Don Draper, but the 1970s London advertising world had Salman Rushdie — who worked at two ad agencies prior to moving on to a career as full-time writer. Several critically-acclaimed novels (including Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses) and major awards later, Rushdie is now household name. And he’s out with a new book Luka and the Fire of Life (Nov. 2010, Random House), which he reads for the first time in New York at 92Y.
Wed, Dec 1, 8pm, $27 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
An Evening of Mozart: Poet J.D. McClatchy and The Metropolitan Opera
McClatchy, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet (and editor of the Yale Review), is also the creator of the English-language libretto of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, a holiday favorite at The Metropolitan Opera. He has translated seven of the libretti, including The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte. Upon the book’s publication, McClatchy is joined by singers from this year’s (Met) production of The Magic Flute – for an evening of readings and performance.
Sun, Dec 5, 11 am, $34 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Books & Bagels: The Letters of Saul Bellow – With Benjamin Taylor
Saul Bellow wrote to fellow writer Bernard Malamud in 1953, “I don’t get many letters about Augie that I feel like answering. By pressure of numbers, society can make a specialist of you, if in no other way. Augie threatens to become my specialty as flying the Atlantic became the Lindberghs’.” Benjamin Taylor, essayist, novelist and editor of Saul Bellow: Letters (Nov. 2010, Penguin Group) visits 92Y to discuss Bellow’s correspondence with friends, family, fans and his fellow writers. Books & Bagels events include a light brunch.
Thu, Dec 9, 8:15 pm, $19 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Galway Kinnell
Kinnell, a Pulitzer-Prize winner (for 1982’s Selected Poems) and a true giant of American poetry has a treat in store for us at this event, as he reads from new poems not yet published. “One of the true master poets of his generation.… There are few others writing today in whose work we feel so strongly the full human presence,” said Morris Dickstein of The New York Times Book Review. Kinnell first visited the Poetry Center in 1959.
Sun, Dec 12, 11 am, $34
Books & Bagels: Leon Fleisher with Anne Midgette
Two Hands – Nathaniel Kahn’s moving 2007 short film shows Leon Fleisher to be not only a once-in-a-lifetime talent, but an inspiration. Fleisher lost the use of his right just as his promising career as a classical pianist took off. He waged a thirty-year battle to return to the concert stage with both hands, but continued to perform and commission pieces for one hand throughout. If you haven’t seen the Kahn film, this is your chance, as Fleisher himself screens it at this event. Better yet, he sits down for a talk with Anne Midgette, Washington Post music critic and co-author of his new memoir, My Nine Lives (Dec. 2010, Knopf Doubleday). True Fleisher fans can check out the master in action on Nov. 13, in a concert at 92Y.
Mon, Dec 13, 8 pm, $27
Ian Frazier & John McPhee ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Who (in their right mind) would make repeated visits to Siberia over a ten-year period? Ian Frazier did, and he has a book to show for it, Travels in Siberia (Oct. 2010, FSG). Here’s an excerpt: “Officially, there is no such place as Siberia…In atlases, the word ‘Siberia’ hovers across the northern third of Asia unconnected to any place in particular, as if designating a zone or condition.” Joining Frazier is another writer who frequently graced the pages of The New Yorker with tales of adventure and other diversions, John McPhee. McPhee, the quintessential “writer’s writer” also has a new book out, Silk Parachute (March 2010, FSG), which brings together pieces on lacrosse, photography, food, geology and fact-checking.
Mon, Jan 24, 2011, 8 pm, $19 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Carlos Fuentes
The first U.S. bestseller by a Mexican writer was Gringo Viejo (Old Gringo) by Carlos Fuentes, which was made into a movie starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda in 1989. More than twenty years and nearly as many books later Fuentes is still very much the giant of Mexican literature. His new book, Destiny and Desire (Jan. 2011, Random House), is a coming-of-age epic set in modern-day Mexico. This event marks the novel’s New York debut reading, and it’s a rare opportunity to see the author in New York.
Highlights of Upcoming Events in 2011
Jan 31: Maxine Hong Kingston & Leslie Marmon Silko, with an introduction by Toni Morrison
Feb 7: A Celebration of Tennessee Williams, with Tony Kushner, Olympia Dukakis, John Guare, Marian Seldes, Eli Wallach, Zoe Caldwell and more. In honor of the playwright’s centenary in 2011.
Feb 21: Joyce Carol Oates, reading from her new memoir, A Widow’s Story (Feb. 2011, HarperCollins)
Mar 7: Victor LaValle and Gary Shteyngart
Mar 20: Why Translation Matters: Clare Cavanagh & Edith Grossman
Mar 21: A Celebration of Czesław Miłosz with Robert Hass, Adam Zagajewski and Clare Cavanagh – A tribute to the great Polish poet in honor of his centenary.
Mar 28: The Tenth Muse with Adam Zagajewski
Apr 17: Michael Slater on Charles Dickens (Books & Bagels)
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE 2010-11 POETRY CENTER SEASON, PLEASE CALL ANDREW SHERMAN, 212.415.5693/ OR VISIT www.92y.org/poetry.
