Word For Word Series at Bryant Park

Bryant Park's outdoor Reading Room is one of the coolest places to hear about books in a beautiful setting, behind the main New York Public Library right in the middle of the city. On Wednesdays during the summer they host a Word for Word Series, with authors talking about their works.

Recently, Robin Kall, of the Reading With Robin podcast, moderated a discussion with five terrific authors, beginning with N. West Moss, author of the short story collection The Subway Stops at Bryant Park. This event was the perfect venue for her talk about her book, where all the stories have a Bryant Park connection.

Moss liked to visit the park and people watch, playing "Tourist/Not Tourist" with her mother. She has a real love for the park, especially the Gertrude Stein statue. She read a small piece from one of her stories, about a librarian named Tim who works at the NYPL. In her research for the book, West got a tour of the stacks of books underneath the Bryant Park lawn- lucky lady!

Courntney Maum's new novel Touch, tells the story of a trend forecaster who believes the next "big thing" will be human touch, not tech. She got the idea from watching a change in her friends. About three years ago, they suddenly became unable to make a decision without consulting their phones. From whom they be attracted to (Tinder) to where and what they should eat (Yelp), people seems to be losing their human intuition.

Maum read a dialogue from her novel between the protagonist and her driverless car, Anastasia; it was very funny and Touch intrigues me.

Daniel Riley, the lone male on the panel, presented his debut novel Fly Me, set in 1972 Southern California, about two young sisters, stewardesses who become involved in a cocaine drug-running scheme and become entangled in a skyjacking incident. As a person who came of age in the 1970s, I found this one fascinating.

J. Courtney Sullivan's novel Saints For All Occasions has been called "the year's best book about family" by Washington Post reviewer Ron Charles, and several other reviewers share his enthusiasm.

Sullivan joked that she would "talk fast" because she is "38 weeks pregnant and might not finish the program". Her story is about two sisters who emigrate from Ireland to Boston with a big secret. She got the idea from a family story, telling the audience that at every Irish funeral there is always someone who shows up, an uncle or aunt, whom no one knew existed. In her story, it is a cloistered nun. This one has been on my list for awhile, I can't wait to dig in, especially since I come from an Irish family.

Julia Fierro's The Gypsy Moth Summer has also garnered much critical praise, making many "Best of Summer" book lists. (Including mine- my review is here.)  Set in 1992, on an island much like Long Island, Fierro's novel has summer romance, family issues, corporate pollution, class and race issues all wrapped up in a fantastic story.

A three time veteran of the Word for Word series, Fierro was very comfortable with the audience, joking about, among other things, the fact that since she is half-Italian and half-Irish, there was a lot of holy water in her house.

Kall brought up that each book was set in different eras and asked why. Fierro's book is set in 1992 because she was 16 that year, like her character Maddie, and so could relate. She wanted her story to be pre-Internet, when teens hung out at the mall and beach.

Maum's novel obviously had to be set in the "present day-ish" because the book depends on the current technology being a big part of the story. She did go out of her way not to brand things; you won't find Iphones or Google in Touch.

Moss' story collection starts with the Bryant Park renovation in the 1980's, when the park was known as "Needle Park" because of all the needles that littered the ground when drug users were the only people who hung out there. She mentioned how much more beautiful the park is now, but progress has a double-edge, with a cup of coffee in the park "now costing $9".

Riley's Fly Me is set in 1972, a time of "transition and tumult in the culture and airline industry." Since the setting was 14 years before he was born, Riley depended on playlists, slideshows and his mom and aunt for help with his research.

Sullivan's Saints For All Occasions goes back and forth between 1957 and 2009 because she wanted to look at the characters over time, how they are shaped by the decades and the Catholic Church, particularly women and what they could and couldn't do.

Kall then asked about epigraphs in books, because each author used them in their books. An epigraph is a short saying or sentence, used as a quote in the beginnings of the book to suggest they theme. Fierro originally had six, and laughed that her editor told she had to choose only one. The authors have epigraphs  from Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood, Joan Didion and David Foster Wallace in their books.

Kall closed by asking the authors to suggest books to the audience. Maum chose Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash, Riley suggested Newton Thornburg's 1976 California-set Cutter and Bone, Sullivan loves anything by Irish author Anne Enright, particularly The Gathering,  and Fierro went non-fiction with her pick of Deborah Blum's true crime book The Poisoner's Handbook, about the birth of forensic medicine in the Jazz Age of New York City.

Kall did a terrific job, asking great questions and getting such an interesting conversation with five authors in just an hour's time. I'm looking forward to more wonderful bookish talks at Bryant Park.

Information on Bryant Park's events is here.
Reading With Robin's website is here.
N. West Moss' website is here.
Courtney Maum's website is here.
Daniel Riley's website is here.
J. Courtney Sullivan's website is here.
Julia Fierro's website is here.

Reading With Robin at Word For Word at Bryant Park

Bryant Park, located right behind the New York Public Library, hosts a fabulous literary series each summer. Word For Word features authors in conversation about their works on Wednesdays during the lunch hour, and a few weeks ago I saw a really terrific program.

Robin Kall, who hosts a radio program Reading With Robin, hosted four authors talking about Family Drama in Fiction.

Kall, Dubow, Genova, Hughes, Thomas

Charles Dubow, who wrote Indiscretion, a book I really liked, is back with Girl in the Moonlight, a love story about "a first love that lasts a bit too long." It has compelling characters, and he said "the moral of the story resonates with me, hopefully with you too."

Lisa Genova, whose novel Still Alice, was recently made into a heartbreaking movie that won the Oscar for Julianne Moore, is back with Inside the O'Briens about a family dealing with the diagnosis of Huntington's Disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disease that is passed on genetically. She says it is about "how to find hope in a hopeless situation." I read it and it is amazing. (My review is here.)

Mary Beth Hughes' The Loved Ones is "essentially a story about a marriage." Set in 1969-70, a couple who lost their son two years ago are trying to find their way back to each other amidst problems with their 13 year-old daughter, and a brother who is trying to involve them in an embezzlement scheme.

Matthew Thomas' We Are Not Ourselves was on my list of The Most Compelling Books of 2014, and as Robin stated "is destined to be a classic." His story is about a Irish immigrant's daughter born in the 1940's who aspires to become middle class and achieve the American dream. He says it's about "how to deal with life with grace." (My review here.)

Kall asked some great questions of the group, including asking what kind of eavesdropping they did as part of their writing. Genova is from a large Italian family (she is the 26th grandchild!), a group she called "loud and boisterous", so there were plenty of opportunities as a child to listen.

Thomas declared that he was "an inveterate eavesdropper", claiming that as a writer he is always listening to the story being told off to the side.

Hughes's father is one of 12 children and she has 72 first cousins, so she always was surrounded by people talking. Now that she is a writer, her aunt is always telling her that she "has a lot of stories."

Dubow comes from a small family, and he was born with a stutter, so always listened much more than he talked.

Kall then asked what determined the time period setting of their novels, which was a good question I hadn't heard much before.  Thomas said he told a "story of time and place." It needed context, and called it a historical novel, not one "shot through with cell phones."

Hughes said that setting was very important to her story, calling it "Mad Men-esque" in 1969-70 when women's consciousness groups were beginning, and what that meant to the teenage daughter.

Genova's novel had to be set after 1993, when the gene that causes Huntington's was isolated. The fact that genetic testing is available is a key plot point in Inside the O'Briens.

Dubow needed to set his novel at the beginning of the AIDS crisis, when AIDS shaming was prevalent, as that is important to his plot as well.

When Kall asked if any topics were off-limits, Genova burst out with "Hockey. I'm not writing about hockey", which elicited chuckles from the audience.

Thomas said "this sounds like a challenge", then said he would "stay away from something that was unnecessarily painful to others." Dubow said he would not write about something he knew nothing about, while Hughes would "find it difficult to write about dance."

Kall said that some of her favorite family drama authors are Jonathan Tropper and Phillip Roth and asked the authors to name some of the favorites. Hughes loves Penelope Fitzgerald, saying that Blue Flower and Gate of Angels were favorites.

Thomas believes that everything is family drama, and called out Alice McDermott (one of my favorites) as well as the Russians, like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.

Genova liked All The Light We Cannot See, last year's Pulitzer Prize winner, and Dubow also cited the Russians, along with William Faulkner and James Salter's The Light Years.

Kall closed with a fantastic question- "What is the hope for your families in your book?" Hughes has great hope for her character Lily, " a beautiful spirit with great faith."  Thomas hopes that his character Eileen has grandchildren and learns to "feel the joy and forget the things that drove her and that she is more present in the moment."

Genova hops that her characters, who face chronic health issues can "be present to love, and the feel the gratitude of the joy of today.

Robin Kall was a wonderful moderator and this was one of the best Word For Word events I have attended. The rest of the summer schedule is here.

You can follow Robin Kall here.

Word for Word Author Series at Bryant Park

Sara Barron, Ali Wentworth, Justin Halpern at Bryant Park 

I love when the warmer weather is here because that means the return of Bryant Park's Word for Word Author Series on Wednesday afternoons. This year's kickoff was May 16th with author Sara Barron (People Are Unappealing: Even Me) interviewing author/actress Ali Wentworth (Ali in Wonderland and Other Tall Tales) and author Justin Halpern (S&*t My Dad Says and I Suck at Girls).


All three are funny people and Sara's questions were well crafted, (except for one that lost the audience and the authors). She asked the authors to describe themselves and Ali said "I'm a very elegant lady and I feel for the underdog. I can see I have my hands full with you two."

Justin said of himself, "I'm going for nebbishy Jew" to which Sara replied "Mission accomplished."

All three agreed with Sara's assertion that "writing is romanticized" as a profession, and if they are to  be believed, it's a lot of sitting around, fooling around on the internet and finally, at the end of the day, writing one good line. It must take them forever to finish a book.

Describing a "day in the life of a writer", Ali said that she gets up at 6 (her husband Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopolis wakes at 3am), gets her kids up and takes them to school, comes home and drinks lots of English tea, paces a lot, shops online, looks up plastic surgery websites, writes a line and then picks up her kids from school.

Justin says he just follows his dad around with a pencil. He "eats breakfast, farts around on the internet, writes a line, hates it, more internet" and the day is done. He wrote for sitcoms and said that "95% of the time in the writers room is wasted", so either way, he wastes a lot of time.

Sara asked what they would consider a good day of writing, and Ali said "if I don't fall asleep" it's a good day. Justin said if his wife laughs at his stuff, he knows it's good.

Sara asked about pet peeves, and Ali relates that her husband is the serious one, so when he reads something of hers and says "that's funny, but you know what would be funnier?", it makes her crazy. (She talks about that in her funny book.)

Both of their books are about their parents to great extent, and Sara asked how their parents felt about the books. Ali said that her mother "was on the brink of a breakdown" and was afraid that Ali was writing a Patti Davis or Mommy Dearest type book, and even enlisted Ali's siblings to contact anyone they knew at HarperCollins to stop the book. (It wasn't necessary, the book is really a love letter to her mother.)

Justin's dad made him sit next to him while he read the book, which was excruciating. His dad said "Page 86- when have I ever hopped into a car? I don't 'hop' into anything."

I like this series because instead of just a reading, the authors discuss their process and craft of writing. It's always an enlightening afternoon, plus it's outside and a sunny day, it's just beautiful.

The Word for Word series schedule can be found here.
I reviewed Ali's book Ali in Wonderland on the blog here.
Ali Wentworth has a web show, The Daily Shot, on yahoo that is very funny.
Sara Barron's website is here.
Justin Halpern, who owes everything to Twitter and his dad, can be found on Tumblr.