It's been months since I posted, I know. For those of you who have stuck around, waiting for a new post, thank you. But I'm going to be shuttering this blog for good - and for a good reason.

I'm so excited to announce that today, the New York Society Library has launched its newly redesigned website, and along with it, a new Library-wide blog. So I will no longer be posting to The Writing Life blog, but will start posting writing life related content to our new blog. The past content on this blog, which I know some of you like to refer to, especially the transcriptions of some Writing Life talks, will remain here.

I hope you'll visit us over at www.nysoclib.org. You'll find the new Library Blog on the Marginalia tab on the left side of every page on the new site. Let us know what you think!

Congratulations Robert Caro

Congratulations to NYSL trustee Robert Caro, whose latest book The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson is a finalist for the National Book Award. The Passage of Power is the fourth volume in his prize winning and critically acclaimed biography of Lyndon Johnson.

Robert Caro has been a Library trustee since 1994.







For a list of all the nominees, click here.

Laurence Bergreen on CBS Sunday Morning

NYSL trustee Laurence Bergreen will be appearing this week on CBS News Sunday Morning to talk about...what else but Christopher Columbus. Bergreen's Columbus: The Four Voyages has just been published in paperback. For more on Laurence Bergreen, check out his website.

Tune in to CBS this coming Sunday, Oct 7 at 9am for Sunday Morning Correspondent Mo Rocca's cover story with Laurence Bergreen.






Please note that the Library is closed Sunday, Oct 7 and Monday, Oct 8 in celebration of Columbus Day.

C.S. Hanson's Look at Me, Look Away (Now, Please)

A staged reading of member C.S. Hanson's play Look at Me, Look Away (Now, Please) will take place on Wed, Oct 10 as part of At Hand Theatre Company's Developmental Reading Series. The reading is free, but reservations are required.

Look At Me, Look Away (Now, Please)
by C.S. Hanson
directed by Bryce Alexander

Wednesday, October 10th, 7:00pm
Shetler Studios
244 W 54th Street,12th Fl, Penhouse #1 (between Broadway & 8th Ave
RSVP
Playwright info

Susan and Rusty are living the good life until . . . he starts barking like a dog and young men start following her home. This couple is melting down, right along with the economy, the American dream, and all they once thought was as solid as the wedding rings on their fingers.to make sure you get a seat for this exciting piece of new theater!

Janet Wallach at The Corner Bookstore

Member Janet Wallach has written an engrossing new book about the mysterious Hetty Green, who was reportedly worth at least 100 million dollars, more than 2 billion in today's dollars, at her death in 1916.

Janet will be speaking about the new book, The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age tonight at The Corner Bookstore.

Thursday, Sept 27, 7pm
The Corner Bookstore
1313 Madison Avenue (at 93rd Street)
Information

Andrew McCarthy readings

I have been woefully ignoring the blog lately. Lately? Well, all summer then. In any case, I promise to be back periodically with news about our member writers. First up...he's been getting a lot of buzz lately about his new book. NYSL member Andrew McCarthy has just published The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down and he'll be doing a number of readings around town.

TONIGHT! Sept 24
5:30 pm Soho Apple Store

7:00 pm The Half King
505 West 23rd Street (23rd btw. 10th and 11th)

Oct 9
7:00 pm
Corner Book Store
Madison Avenue & 93rd

Read Maggie Jackson's Blog!

NYSL member Maggie Jackson's blog is one you should be reading. Forbes Magazine just named it one of the Top 100 Websites for Women 2012.

Maggie is an author and journalist who posts about the balancing acts of working parents and how technology is changing the way we live and work. She is the author of the books Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age and What's Happening to Home?: Balancing Work, Life, and Refuge in the Information Age

Congratulations Maggie!

What's a Writer?

This is late notice, but definitely should be of interest to all of you:

What's a Writer?

The Coffin Factory editor Laura Isaacman in discussion with (and readings by) contributors Bonnie Nadzam, Jacques Strauss and John Reed.

Tuesday, June 12th, 6:00 - 7:30 pm
DeWitt Wallace Periodicals Room 108
The New York Public Library
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street
(Please use 5th Avenue entrance)
Admission is free.

Richard Ford and Joyce Carol Oates in Conversation

I want to give you all a gentle nudge toward a great upcoming program focused on the writing life. Our sister membership library, The Center for Fiction (in partnernship with the City University of New York), will host Richard Ford and Joyce Carol Oates, two of America's most interesting contemporary writers, in conversation about their latest books and the writing life. I'm looking forward to a fascinating discussion and an opportunity to discover how these prolific, award winning writers work. I hope I'll see you there.

Richard Ford and Joyce Carol Oates in Conversation
Wednesday June 6, 7:00 pm
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
899 10th Avenue (betw. 58th & 59th)


Ticket pricing for this program includes your choice of either author's latest book:
- Ticket and Richard Ford's Canada or Joyce Carol Oates's Mudwoman, $28 ($25 for members, seniors, and students)
- Ticket without book, $15
- Ticket buyers also have an option to donate an additional $5 to The Center for Fiction’s Books for NYC Schools program

For more information and to buy tickets, click here

Congratulations Nancy Goldner!

Congratulations to NYSL member Nancy Goldner who has been selected to receive the 2012 Dance Critics Association's Senior Critic Award. She will receive her award during the conference on Saturday June 23. Nancy Goldner studied at the School of American Ballet and began writing dance criticism in the late 1960s for Dance News. In addition to Dance News, she has written about dance for such publications as The Christian Science Monitor, The Nation, Saturday Review, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She is the author of More Balanchine Variations (2011), Balanchine Variations (2008) and The Stravinsky Festival of the New York City Ballet (1974). She has also lectured widely for the George Balanchine Foundation.

Jan C. Grossman's Poetry

It's National Poetry Month...

NYSL member (and leader of NYSL's own poetry writing group)
Jan C. Grossman, will be reading this coming Saturday:

Saturday, April 14, 2pm
New York Public Library
96th Street Branch






And don't miss Jan at our Library's own National Poetry Month Celebration next week, along with NYSL member poets Louis Phillips and David Yezzi.
Three Poets, Three Voices
Friday, April 20
Refreshments at 6pm, Readings at 6:30pm
Members' Room
$10 with advance registration

Maggie Jackson

NYSL member Maggie Jackson will be speaking at the Murray Hill Institute as part of the Culture and Core Beliefs Lecture series.

Maggie Jackson
From Daydreaming to Contemplation: Rediscovering Reflection in a Hurried, Overloaded Age
April 11, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00 pm
$10; Refreshments will be served
RSVP by Monday, April 9th, or call 347-213-0729 to reserve a space.

Murray Hill Institute
243 Lexington Avenue

Jay Prasad's Prisoner of Love Opening April 5

NYSL member Jay Prasad's new play Prisoner of Love premieres this week.

Prisoner of Love
April 5th-7th, 10th-14th, 17th-21st @ 8PM
Matinees on April 8th and 15th @ 2PM
45th Street Theatre
354 W. 45th St. (between 9th and 10th ave)
General Admission tickets $25
Tickets and Info

Louis Begley on Schmidt Steps Back

In Schmidt Steps Back , NYSL member Louis Begley continues the poignant, darkly funny, emotionally nuanced series that began with About Schmidt.

Begley will speak about the new novel here at The New York Society Library on May 10. Register online or call the Events office at 212-288-6900 x230. But if you can't make that....





He will also be appearing tonight at the Center for Fiction:
Thursday, March 22, 7pm
The Center for Fiction
17 East 47th Street
Info

Paul Werner at the LeftForum Conference

NYSL member Paul Werner will be autographing and selling copies of his book The Red Museum at this weekend's LeftForum Conference at Pace University.

March 16 - 18
Pace University
City Hall campus
LeftForum Conference

Maggie Jackson on sustaining attention & reflection in children

NYSL member Maggie Jackson is the author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age (Prometheus, 2008) and is an award winning writer on the impact of technology on humanity. This coming Monday, she'll be in conversation with Richard Lewis of The Touchstone Center for Children discussing ways to sustain the innate nature of attention and reflection in children, as they play, imagine, and express themselves through the arts.

Monday, March 12, 7pm
The Performance Project University Settlement
184 Eldridge Street
Free admission but please register online

Joan Didion Nominated for Indies Choice Award

NYSL member Joan Didion has been nominated for an Indies Choice Award for her latest work, Blue Nights.

The winners will be announced April 5 by the American Bookseller Association.

What to do on Tuesdays...

If you haven't seen NYSL member Michael Bergmann's independent film Tied to a Chair, you're in for a treat. This delightful and funny movie about a London housewife in search of a last chance acting career will be running on Tuesdays at the Big Cinema all the way through May.

In a unique idea to deliver larger audiences to independent film, Big Cinemas and The Process Studio Theater have teamed up to offer FREE (yes, FREE!) screenings of the movie in the hopes that the audience grows by word of mouth. So check it out - each week Tied to a Chair will be screened along with a short film.

Big Cinemas
239 E. 59th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Aves)
Reservations are requested. Please call 212-594-8800
Every Tuesday at 6pm presented with a different short:
3/6: In Bed With My Books

Watch the trailer for Tied to a Chair

David Margolick at Books at the Bar

If you read this blog even sporadically, you know that I'm a big fan of the Books at the Bar. It's a terrific author series at the New York City Bar Association (organized by NY State Judge - and NYSL member- Diane Kiesel) that features new-ish books on topics with at least some legal bent. The other great thing about it? The wine and cheese reception with the author beforehand! Oh, and it's FREE.

This month's author talk honors Black History Month with author David Margolick who will discuss his new book, Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock. Margolick relies on the famous photograph of the first day of integration at Little Rock's Central High School on September 4, 1957 and follows the two girls -- one white, one black -- who were framed in it to examine that historic event through their lives.

I hope to see you all there...

David Margolick
Wednesday, February 29, 6pm
Books at the Bar
42 West 44th Street (betw. 5th and 6th Aves)

Elizabeth Yamin and Ron Singer at The Painting Center

NYSL member Elizabeth Yamin will be exhibiting her artwork at The Painting Center through February 25.

The Painting Center
547 West 27 St, Suite 500
212-343-1060
Tues to Sat 11 am to 6 pm
For more information, click here

Also at the Center: on Saturday, February 25 at 4pm, Elizabeth's husband Ron Singer will be reading from his work.