A Tribute to William Styron
Wednesday December 13, 2006 at 6:00 PM
Boston Public Library, Copley Square
Abbey Room (McKim Building)
From the publication of his lyrical debut novel, Lie Down in Darkness, to his death this fall, more than half a century later, Willam Styron exerted a powerful influence on American literature. His writing—including the subsequent novels Sophie's Choice and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Confessions of Nat Turner, as well as plays, essays, and a searing memoir, Darkness Visible—plumbed subjects disturbing and profound: slavery, the Holocaust, depression. He also worked avidly on behalf of human rights in America and abroad.
The evening will feature readings from his acclaimed (and often controversial) works, reminiscences by friends and colleagues, and a discussion of his lasting impact. Speakers will include Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer prize winning author and family friend; Robert Brustein, founding director of the Yale Repertory and American Repertory Theaters, and longtime friend of Mr. Styron; Gail Caldwell, Pulitzer Prize-winning chief book critic of the Boston Globe, who will speak about Darkness Visible and her conversations with Styron about that book; Kenneth Greenberg, editor of a definitive edition of Confessions of Nat Turner and co-producer of a PBS documentary on the book; Jennifer Haigh, award-winning author of Mrs. Kimble and Baker Towers; and Norman Mailer, Pulitzer prize winning author and friend of Mr. Styron.
PEN New England is proud to host a tribute to this eloquent artist and activist, and we hope you will attend.
Read Lynda Morgenroth's follow-up to this event in the News section.
Bill Roorbach Reads at Hotel Marlowe
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
From 6:15 PM to 7:00 PM
(During Wine Hour, which begins at 5:00 PM)
Bill Roorbach is the author most recently of Temple Stream, winner of the 2006 Maine Literary Award in Nonfiction. His fiction includes the novel The Smallest Color and a collection of stories, Big Bend, which won the Flannery O'Connor Prize. The title story also won an O. Henry Award. His other books of nonfiction are A Place on Water (with Bob Kimber and Wes McNair), Into Woods, Summers with Juliet, and the best-selling book of instruction, Writing Life Stories. His short work has appeared in The Atlantic, Harper's, Granta, and the New York Times Magazine. He currently holds the William H.P. Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. He lives in Farmington, Maine, with his wife, the painter Juliet Karelsen, and their daughter Elysia.
Porter Square Books will be selling books at this reading.
The Hotel Marlowe is located at 25 Edwin H. Land Boulevard, Cambridge. Inexpensive parking is available in the Cambridgeside Galleria garage with direct entry into the hotel from Levels A and C. The hotel is closest to the Lechmere T-stop, and is within walking distance of Charles and Kendall Square.
For more information call 617-824-8820 or e-mail pen_ne@lesley.edu