Shirley Hazzard TONIGHT at the Library

Our own incomparable member and trustee Shirley Hazzard will discuss her work, views, and travels with Robert Harrison tonight in the Members' Room.

Shirley Hazzard is one of the world's most gifted and acclaimed writers. Her eleven books include the 2004 National Book Award winning The Great Fire, The Transit of Venus, and The Bay of Noon.

The New York Society Library
53 E. 79th Street
Members' Room, 6:30PM
$10 advance registration/$15 at the door

Shirley Hazzard in Conversation with Richard Ford this coming Friday

As part of the PEN/World Voices Festival of International Literature, Richard Ford (The Sportswriter, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land) interviews Shirley Hazzard. Special guests will read from Hazzard's work.

Friday, April 30
92nd Street Y, Unterberg Poetry Center, 1395 Lexington
7 - 8 pm
Information and tickets

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"...