The Writing Life The Writing Children’s and Children’s Special Events Special Events Events YA Events YA Seminars Lectures PAGE 5 PAGE 12 PAGE 13 W IN te R 2017 PAGE 19 PAGE 10 PAGE 7 Elliot Ackerman and Roxana Robinson SPECIAL EVENT CONVERSATION Uptown at Night Dark at the Crossing An Evening of Humorous Storytelling and Comedy Knopf, January 2017 The storytelling and comedy scene in New York City is a Haris Abadi is a man in search of a cause. An Arab American source of endless creativity. Not quite under the radar, it’s with a conflicted past, he is now in Turkey, attempting to bubbling up on small storytelling stages and in feisty comedy cross into Syria and join the fight against Bashar al-Assad’s venues, primarily located in the far reaches of Manhattan regime. But he is robbed before he can make it and is and beyond. Join us as we bring to the Members’ Room a taken in by Amir, a charismatic Syrian refugee and former delightful roster of storytellers and comic actors with fresh, revolutionary, and Amir’s wife, Daphne, a sophisticated funny observations of our life and times. beauty haunted by grief. As it becomes clear that Daphne is also desperate to return to Syria, Haris’s choices become Michael Arkin began his impressive acting career ever more wrenching: Whose side is he really on? Is he a true performing theater on the streets of his native Brooklyn radical or simply a pragmatist? And will he be able to bring as a member of Everyman Co. With a BA in Theater from meaning to a life of increasing frustration and helplessness? Wesleyan, he has played principal roles on TV (Law & Told with compassion and a deft hand, Elliot Ackerman’s Order), in film (Fatal Attraction) and on stages across the Photo by Thomas Storm Photo Dark at the Crossing is an exploration of loss, of second U.S. Active in actors’ organizations, he has served on the chances, and of why we choose to believe—a trenchantly National Board of the Screen Actors Guild. observed novel of raw urgency and power. Carmen Maria Machado is a writer whose humorous stories Elliot Ackerman, author of the critically acclaimed novel and commentary have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, Green on Blue, is based out of Istanbul, where he has covered the Paris Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Syrian Civil War since 2013. His writings have appeared the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and was awarded a Yaddo in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the New Republic, and the fellowship, among others. Machado’s debut short story New York Times Magazine, among other publications, and collection, Her Body and Other Parties, is forthcoming in his stories have been included in The Best American Short 2017 from Graywolf Press. Stories. He is both a former White House Fellow and Marine, Nancy McCabe-Kelly and Bruce Jarchow, improv comedic and served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan where actors, met performing at Chicago’s famed Second City. he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Jarchow’s film and TV appearances include Seinfeld, Coach, Purple Heart. and Continental Divide. The couple’s latest production, In this event, Mr. Ackerman appears in conversation with Been There, Still There, was performed in New York and Roxana Robinson. Ms. Robinson is the author of five novels, in Chicago, where they received TimeOut’s Critic’s Choice most recently Sparta; three short story collections; and the award for being “funny, tender and funny again.” OPEN TO THE PUBLIC biography Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life. Her work has appeared in Additional performers will be announced. the New Yorker, Harper’s, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Thursday, February 2 and Best American Short Stories, among other publications. Uptown at Night presents live storytelling and comedy on 6:30 PM She has received fellowships from the National Endowment the Upper East Side. It is a collaboration of Sydney LeBlanc, Members’ Room for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. Ms. Robinson OPEN TO THE PUBLIC a writer, and Mickey Murray, a producer. Ms. Murray began $15 per person; advance teaches in Hunter College’s master of fine arts program and is her career in TV, working with the Johnny Carson and Dick registration required Tuesday, January 31 president of the Authors Guild. refreshments 6:00 PM Cavett shows. Ms. LeBlanc frequently reads her humorous presentation 6:30 PM short stories at Live from the Library. Members’ Room $20 per person; advance THE WRITING LIFE EVENTS IN 2017 ARE GENEROusly UNDERWRItteN registration required BY JENNY LawRENCE. 2 3 Donna Kaz PANEL LECTURE Act Like a Feminist Artist: A Guerrilla Girl Unmasks New York: Scene of the Crime UN/MASKED published by Skyhorse Publishing, November 2016 Three acclaimed mystery writers discuss New York City as Ever wonder what it’s like to be a feminist masked avenger? a setting for crime fiction, historical or present-day. Donna Kaz, aka Aphra Behn, shares her experiences as a Lyndsay Faye is the author of five critically acclaimed feminist activist for gender parity in the performing art books: Dust and Shadow; The Gods of Gotham, which was world for 20 years as a member of the Guerrilla Girls. Her nominated for an Edgar for Best Novel; Seven for a Secret; journey to feminist artist began when she moved to New The Fatal Flame; and Jane Steele. York City to pursue a career in theater and got sidetracked in a three-year violent relationship with a famous actor. Stefanie Pintoff’s first novel, In the Shadow of Gotham, won Always an outsider, she took one step further into invisibility the Edgar Award for Best First Novel of 2009 and earned and became a Guerrilla Girl, a feminist activist who never nominations for the Anthony, Macavity, and Agatha awards. appears in public without wearing a rubber gorilla mask In the Shadow of Gotham introduced turn-of-the-century and who uses the name of a dead woman artist to provoke New York Police Detective Simon Ziele, who appeared again change. As the Guerrilla Girl Aphra Behn, she created in A Curtain Falls (2010) and Secret of the White Rose (2011). comedic art and theater that blasted the blatant sexism of Stefanie launched the Eve Rossi series of thrillers in 2015 the theater world while proving feminists are funny at the with Hostage Taker, a Barry Award nominee for Best Thriller. same time. “Act Like A Feminist Artist” discusses the posters, The second Eve Rossi novel, City on Edge, was published in protests, fax blitzes, speak outs, and street theater actions November 2016. created by the Girls, coupled with passages of Aphra’s new Radha Vatsal grew up in Mumbai, India, and came to the memoir, UN/MASKED: Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl On Tour. United States to attend boarding school when she was Get the inside scoop from a woman-turned-survivor-turned- sixteen. She has stayed here ever since. Her fascination with radical feminist who takes off her mask and, by merging her the 1910s began when she studied women filmmakers and identities, reveals all. action-film heroines of silent cinema at Duke University, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC where she earned her Ph.D. from the English Department. Poet essayist, and author Katha Pollitt calls UN/MASKED Her first novel, A Front Page Affair, was published by Thursday, January 26 “A vivid memoir of an eager, energetic woman of the theatre Photo by Juliette Conroy by Juliette Photo 6:30 PM Sourcebooks Landmark in May 2016. confronting sexism in love and art. It’s also a rare first-hand Members’ Room account of life inside the famed Guerrilla Girls, those gorilla- Discussion will be moderated by Linda Landrigan, editor in $15 per person; advance masked artists and performers who made feminist protest chief of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. registration required daring, original and fun.” Mystery Writers of America is the oldest and most prominent organization for writers of crime fiction and other Donna Kaz is a multigenre writer and the author of OPEN TO THE PUBLIC professionals in the field. It presents the prestigious Edgar Performing Tribute 9/11; The Wanderer; Waiting; Food, the Musical; and JOAN, voted Best Production of 2000 by the Thursday, February 16 Awards each year to the most deserving works in the mystery refreshments 6:00 PM field. The organization also monitors legal developments Scranton Times. Her alter ego, Aphra Behn, is a performer, presentation 6:30 PM affecting writers and promotes networking and professional a playwright, a producer, and the artistic director of Guerrilla Members’ Room development. The New York chapter serves writers and Girls On Tour! They both live in New York City. Free of charge; advance readers in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, registration required Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. See www.mwany.org for This event will more information. last approximately 90 minutes. THIS EVENT IS CO-SPONSORED WITH mysteRY WRITERS OF AMERIca NEW YORK. 4 5 Christopher Rothko Ian W. Toll LECTURE LECTURE Mark Rothko: From the Inside Out The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944 Yale University Press, November 2015 W.W. Norton and Co., September 2015 Mark Rothko (1903–1970), world-renowned icon of This masterful history encompasses the heart of the Pacific Abstract Expressionism, is rediscovered in this wholly War—the period between mid-1942 and mid-1944—when original examination of his art and life written by his son. parallel Allied counteroffensives north and south of the Synthesizing rigorous critique with personal anecdotes, equator washed over Japan’s far-flung island empire like Christopher, the younger of the artist’s two children, a “conquering tide,” concluding with Japan’s irreversible offers a unique perspective on this modern master.