It’s Pat! …Nixon – Ann Beattie in Conversation with Edmund White at McNally Jackson

1. The wild crowd at McNally Jackson. 2. Edmund White, Ann Beattie, kinky scuba masks.

 

Last night was in stark contrast to the last event I attended at McNally Jackson. Ann Beattie, recipient of four O. Henry Awards and a Pen/Malamud award, conversed with novelist Edmund White (City Boy) about her new book Mrs. Nixon, a part-writing diary, part-fiction re-imagining of an elusive figure in public American memory. Despite the evening lasting only about an hour, Beattie and White managed to to discuss feminism, cubism, kinky scuba masks, and sex with Raymond Carver.

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Appetite for Redaction

Normally, the editors at Electric Literature are not handed over government materials, and don’t have to be concerned with redactions and fact-checking. However, the following case notes, pdf, and video were leaked to us by an anonymous contact. Adam Klein, The Size Queens‘ singer, author of “The Medicine Burns” and “Tiny Ladies,” appears to have been held in detention upon his return from The American University of Afghanistan, and we have only the following materials with which to piece together his strange case.

US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, ASSET MANAGEMENT

SUBJECT: ADAM KLEIN

RE: The Size Queens’ “Appetite For Redaction”

Subject expressed confusion when he entered the office, claims his bags were lost, also ticket stubs. Appears disheveled and does not remember his flight number, which carrier, or point of origin.

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2011 National Book Awards Madness!

 1. Host John Lithgow gets the evening off to a great start with some self-deprecating humor. 2. If Cipriani is your regular lunch spot, or your go-to place for dinner, or if you would ever go here even once without being at the National Book Awards, you are not part of the 99 percent.

 
 
It was impossible not to notice the proximity of tonight’s National Book Awards (Cipriani, at 55 Wall Street) to the site of Occupy Wall Street. And being in such a warm, opulent space, enjoying a celebratory evening, it was hard not to feel sort of bad as the protesters huddled outside in the rain.

Ann Lauterbach, presenting to John Ashbery the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, gave the movement a brief mention. “We are occupying Wall Street,” she said to hearty applause. She didn’t have to add “writers” to make her point. Most writers, of course, are as far removed from that reviled 1% as it is possible to be. So there was a certain pride and defiance in the air. Take that, Wall Street Fat Cats!

National Book Awards Finalists Reading at The New School

1. Poet Nikky Finney passionately performs. 2. The young Andrew Krivak reads from The Sojourn.

 

Later tonight, four winning authors will receive the National Book Award for their work of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or the sweetly-titled genre “Young People’s Literature.” For those unfamiliar with some of the twenty finalists, the New School was the host of the ultimate contemporary American literature education last night, as each of the finalists read a five-minute selection from their nominated work.

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Under 35, Under the Influence

1. Honoree Melinda Moustakis (Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories), who lives on the mainland now but goes back to Alaska for fishing season. 2. The Pope of Trash himself, John Waters, with novelist Julia Glass. Before I interrupted them, they were discussing Waters’ appearance on Dancing with the Stars.

Last night, I was fortunate enough to get past the door for “5 under 35,” the National Book Foundation‘s celebration of five young authors and their outstanding work. The event was held this year at the PowerHouse Arena in DUMBO, and the honorees were Shani Boianjiu (The People of Forever Are Not Afraid), Danielle Evans (Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self), Mary Beth Keane (The Walking People), Melinda Moustakis (Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories), and John Corey Whaley (Where Things Come Back). DJ’ing the affair was Patricia Smith, who is also the author of six books of poetry including Blood Dazzler, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award. The beer was courtesy Stella Artois and the wine from Brooklyn Enology. Milk Food Truck served grilled cheese sandwiches.

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WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE! Electric Lit at Franklin Park

1. ZOMG so many books! 2. Award-winning poet Ely Shipley & reader Steve Edwards (Issue #6).

 

Monday night featured two of my favorite things, represented together in one room: The Franklin Park Reading Series and Electric Literature. To celebrate this joyous union, there were movies (screenings of each authors’ single sentence animation)! There was music (mixes made by authors for our blog)! And there were readers from EL (Steve Edwards, Matt Sumell, Ben Greenman, Colson Whitehead, and Jim Shepard)! All of this made Franklin Park obnoxiously crowded, or, as Twitter user Courtney Maum said: “@ElectricLit reading. It is indeed electric. Fire-hasard conditions it’s so crowded.”

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I Shall Not Hate — Dr. Abuelaish at the Forest Hills Jewish Center

1. The crowd at the Jewish Center… 300 people not caring about a scarf. 2. Dr. Abuelaish’s book.

 

One thing I enjoy about writing for the Outlet is that it often takes me places I’d never go if left to my own devices. Take, for example, the Forest Hills Jewish Center last night, which in terms of distance I measured by how close it is to JFK airport (four stops), and also that Google recommended I take the Babylon-LIRR out to get there.

Also, I’m not Jewish, nor have I ever been in a synagogue. As I walked through the doors I was wondering: “Can I wear a scarf? A hat? Are jeans ok? Can I take pictures? Am I violating their space?” Well, you get the picture (neuroses).

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Mischief and Mayhem with Justin Vivian Bond & Laurie Weeks

1. Feminist Press interns India Hoppen and Andrea Espinoza bask in Le Poisson Rouge’s red glow. 2. Justin Vivian Bond reads aloud.

 

There is something about Justin Vivian Bond that is so wholly glamorous and personable that it’s hard not to fall in love. While reading from Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels, on Sunday night at Le Poisson Rouge, Bond settled into a bar stool with a cocktail and reminisced about early experimentations with lipstick and boys as though swapping life stories in the wee hours of a friend’s living room. For those who have yet to pick up Bond’s memoir, recently released from the Feminist Press at CUNY, its philosophical treaties and bold recounting of Bond’s unceasing uniqueness should be considered essential reading, and not only for those interested in gender, LGBTQ rights, and performance.

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Hudson River Loft Reading Series!

1. Kendra Malone and Matthew Savoca (authors most recently of the collaborative poetry collectionMorocco) stage a mock-dress rehearsal. 2. Daniel Nester (journalist, essayist, editor and author most recently of the humorous book How to be Inappropriate) poses with reading host Chloe Caldwell. 3. Between poems, Savoca tells a joke about a fish without an eye/i. (fshhhhh.)
  
This past Saturday night, Chloe Caldwell, author Legs Get Led Astray (forthcoming from Future Tense Books), opened her Hudson, NY, home to host the inaugural gathering of the Hudson River Loft Reading Series.
There to read a wholly excellent mix of poetry and prose (fiction and non) were: Kendra Grant Malone, Matthew Savoca, Mira Ptacin, Sean H. Doyle, Ryder Collins, Danielle Winterton, Daniel Nester, Eric Wybenga, and Chloe Caldwell herself.

NERDS! NERDS! NERDS!: Nerd Jeopardy Presented By FSG

1. Winning team I Would Prefer Not To: Amanda Bullock (Director of Public Programs at Housing Works), Maris Kreizman (who blogs at Slaughterhouse: 90210), and Rachel Fershleiser (You Rach You Lose). 2. Tobias Carroll, editor at Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and Molly Templeton, occupied by miscellany, kickin’ it before the event.
 A thing I love hearing when I’m eavesdropping while browsing a book store: unashamed, awesome nerdery. Add prizes, a lot of wine and faulty train whistles and there is last night’s literary trivia event Nerd Jeopardy, presented by FSG: Work in Progress at McNally Jackson in SoHo. The night was as debauched as one might think when you get a bunch of nerds together at a great bookstore with free wine, prizes, and perhaps eternal glory. Disputes over syntax and correct usage abound.