Pen Parentis Literary Salon Presents Free-Ranging Geniuses Tonight

The Pen Parentis Literary Salon welcomes four celebrated authors whose brilliance knows no bounds. These spectacular writers--who are also parents--range across genre: fiction to memoir, poetry, screenplays and theater. Featuring Nick Flynn, author of, most recently, The Replacements, and Another Bullshit Night in Suck City; Elizabeth Kadetsky, author of the memoir First There Is a Mountain, Darin Strauss, author of Chang & Engand the National Book Critics Circle Award winning memoir Half a Life; and Rachel Zucker, author of MOTHERs andThe Pedestrians. Each author will read from new work and then participate in an informal, salon-style roundtable. It's sure to be an insightful, lively evening, and we hope that you will join us.

The reading takes place tonight, October 14th at the elegant Hotel Andaz at 75 Wall Street, which graciously provides happy hour specials on beer on wine. The night kicks off at 7:00 pm, and admission is free. RSVP is recommended, but not required-the Pen Parentis Literary Salon is open to adults over the age of 21. The authors' books will be available for purchase (for signings) from The Park Slope Community Bookstore.

October 14th's Literary Salon features:

Nick Flynn's most recent book, The Reenactments, completes a trilogy begun with Another Bullshit Night in Suck City. His previous book, The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands, was a collection of poems linked to the second book of the trilogy, The Ticking is the Bomb. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award, was shortlisted for France's Prix Femina, has been translated into fifteen languages, and was adapted into the film Being Flynn, starring Robert De Niro, Julianne Moore, and Paul Dano. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Paris Review, NPR's This American Life, and The New York Times Book Review, among others. He is a professor in the creative writing program at the University of Houston, and spends the rest of his year in or near Brooklyn.

Elizabeth Kadetsky is author of a memoir (First There Is a Mountain, Little Brown), a story collection (The Poison that Purifies You, C&R Press) and, forthcoming, a novella (On the Island at the Center of the Center of the World, Nouvella Books). Her fiction has been included in the Pushcart Prizes, Best New American Voices, and the Best American Short Stories notable citations, and her personal essays have appeared in the New York Times, Antioch Review, and elsewhere. She is assistant professor of creative writing at Penn State, and can be found atwww.elizabethkadetsky.com

A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and a winner of the American Library Association's Alix Award and The National Book Critics Circle Award, the internationally-bestselling writer Darin Strauss is the author of the novelsChang & Eng, The Real McCoy, and More Than It Hurts You, and the NBCC-winning memoir Half a Life. These have been New York Times Notable Books, Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Amazon, Chicago Tribune, and NPR Best Books of the Year, among others. Darin has been translated into fourteen languages and published in nineteen countries, and he is a Clinical Associate Professor at NYU's creative writing program. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two sons.

Rachel Zucker is the author of nine books, most recently, a memoir, MOTHERs, and a double collection of prose and poetry, The Pedestrians. Her book Museum of Accidents was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 2013. Zucker teaches poetry at New York University.

More info at penparentis.org.

Transportation info: Take the 2/3/4/5/J/M to Wall Street. The Salon takes place in the soaring lobby of the Andaz Hotel, at 75 Wall Street.

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, November 11th: Risqué Writing with Paula Bomer, Vica Miller, Jonathan Papernick, and Amy Sohn.

Tuesday, December 9th: Pen Parentis closes its twelfth season. A Night with the Vermont Studio Center, with special guest Yona Zeldis McDonough

Pen Parentis, Ltd, is a New York City-based nonprofit literary organization that provides resources to authors who are also parents, to help them stay on creative track after starting a family.

Pen Parentis Literary Salons are made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. They are also funded in part by The Fund for Creative Communities with public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and by a generous one-time grant from the Sustainable Arts Foundation in California.

Photo Credit: Pen Parentis