Monday, March 29, 2010

Our 1st Giveaway!

Head Librarian Mark Bartlett is giving away two free tickets to a great event at Symphony Space this Wednesday with the writers Colm Tóibín and Colum McCann. McCann's Let the Great World Spin and Tóibín's Brooklyn are two exceptional novels set in New York City. If you would like the two tickets, email Mark directly: mark@nysoclib.org

Ready, set, go: first one to email Mark gets the tickets. Good luck!

Symphony Space
Leonard Nimoy Thalia
2537 Broadway at 95th Street
Wed, March 31, 7:30 pm

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese



...according to G.K. Chesterton.





hmmm.. why is that?



Poets Group meeting tomorrow!
Tuesday, March 30, 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Whitridge Room
Library Members only, please.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Synchronicity

Yesterday, the Library's new exhibit Literary Lives: The World of Francis Steegmuller and Shirley Hazzard opened to great fanfare. Today, Shirley Hazzard's The Bay of Noon was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize, to recognize books published in 1970 that were not eligible for consideration for the Booker. A coincidence, for sure.
















But here's the really interesting part: Muriel Spark's The Driver's Seat was also on the Lost Man Booker shortlist. If you've read curator Harriet Shapiro's interview with Shirley Hazzard (published in the excellent exhibition catalog), then you also know that Muriel Spark was the one who introduced Shirley and Francis, and the rest is history, as they say.

Literary Lives


Ok, I'm still here. I just took a little breather in between Open Mic Night and the exhibition launch last night.

Literary Lives: The World of Francis Steegmuller & Shirley Hazzard is now on display in the Peluso Exhibition Gallery till January 31, 2011, but don't wait to come and see it. Curator Harriet Shapiro has created a fascinating look at this power literary couple. The exhibition catalog ($15) is a real treasure with photos of the couple in New York and South Italy and a captivating interview with Shirley Hazzard.

Let me just say, I LOVE Shirley Hazzard. From the moment she arrived at the party, she was surrounded by friends and admirers, and I feared I wouldn't get a chance to talk to her. I wondered whether she had even had an opportunity to view the exhibition herself. And then, at the very end of the evening, I managed to grab her attention for a quick moment to blurt out how much I love her work and how I was rethinking my next vacation in light of the entrancing photos of Capri in the exhibit. She gave me a big smile, said "oh, you must go", and as she was being whisked off into the night said, "I have to see these pictures myself"...

Monday, March 15, 2010

Open Mic Night this Thursday

it's almost time...
Come hear New York Society Library member writers reading from their work. There's a bawdy farce, a travel essay, poetry, memoirs, a libretto based on The Bonfire of the Vanities, and more!

Hosted by the Library's own Toni Schlesinger, author, journalist, playwright, and performer
Thursday, March 18
6 pm -
Members' Room, $10 w/advance registration/$15 at the door
there's still space for audience members, so register now!

Writing Groups this week

Writing Groups meeting this week:
Fiction Writers Group I
Tuesday, March 16
5 pm - 6:45 pm
Marshall Room (check in at Circulation Desk for escort)

Fiction Writers Group II
Wednesday, March 17
11 am - 1 pm
Whitridge Room

*Please note that the NYSL Writing Groups are open to current Library members only.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Need a Mentor?

The folks at the terrific literary magazine One Story are offering mini-mentorships with their top notch fiction editors, but slots are going fast. Get more information here

Dates:
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Times:11am - 5pm
Location:The Maker's Market
The Old American Can Factory
232 3rd St.
Brooklyn, NY
Cost:$25

Thursday, March 4, 2010

NEW!! Non Fiction Writers Group

Non-Fiction Writers group is forming at The New York Society Library.

Bring a page or two of your work in progress to read and discuss with the group.
Reading and discussion protocol and future meeting dates/times will also be confirmed at the first meeting.

Monday, March 8
10 am - 12 pm
Whitridge Room

Contact me at cwaters@nysoclib.org with questions

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Wednesday Events

Member Emily Eerdmans, author of Regency Redux: High Style Interiors, will be speaking tonight on Mirror, Chrome, and Gin Fizz: Art Deco in Britain
The Grolier Club
47 E. 60th Street, 6 pm
$30 members/$40 non-members
more information

also tonight:
Member Simon Van Booy, author of the short story collection The Secret Lives of People in Love, appearing at
BookCourt
163 Court Street, Brooklyn, 7 pm
information

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Authors opt out of Google Book Settlement

A recent article in The Guardian talks about the thousands of authors who have opted out of the Google Book Settlement.

Should you have opted out? The deadline was January 28. Register now for the next talk in The Writing Life series to hear Jan Constantine, General Counsel and Assistant Director of The Authors Guild, discuss what writers need to know about the settlement.