PUMPKIN HEAD: A Special Halloween Performance by Bill Connington, with Joyce Carol Oates at New York Society Library

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2. PUMPKIN HEAD: A Special Halloween Performance by Bill Connington, with Joyce Carol Oates

Get ready for an exclusive and memorable Halloween event! Join legendary novelist Joyce Carol Oates and acclaimed actor Bill Connington for a special live reading and conversation about Oates' chilling story Pumpkin Head. This rare event will take place at the historic New York Society Library, promising an afternoon of suspense, literary insight, and captivating performance.

When: Saturday, October 27th, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM

Where: New York Society Library, 53 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10075

Registration: Register here

First published in The New Yorker in 2009, a disturbing tale of loss, it explores “the violence of bereavement” and a “woman floundering about in a world of male force.” A recent widow encounters a male visitor who both intrigues and repels her. She struggles with establishing her own identity after the loss of her husband. In this special spooky season event, Bill Connington presents Pumpkin Head and converses with its author, Joyce Carol Oates.

Joyce Carol Oates’ work has been called “audacious” and “dazzling.” The New Yorker has stated, “Oates has become America’s preeminent fiction writer by doing everything you’re not supposed to do.”

Bill Connington is an actor and filmmaker who is also a lecturer in acting at Yale School of Drama. He adapted Joyce Carol Oates’ novella Zombie into an award-winning solo show that he performed off-Broadway, and made into a film. The film won multiple awards at distinguished film festivals across the U.S. His films include Love, Repeat and Poughkeepsie is for Lovers. He appears in Ripley on Netflix and in the upcoming film Killing Castro.

www.billconnington.com

One of the most distinguished literary writers of our time, Joyce Carol Oates is the winner of the National Book Award, the PEN/Malamud, Prix Femina,  and O. Henry Awards, the Norman Mailer Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the National Humanities Medal, and has been nominated as a finalist for 5 Pulitzer Prizes. She is the author of over 70 books, including the well known novels Them (1969), We Were the Mulvaneys (1996), and Blonde (2000). Ms. Oates is also a prolific author of short stories, poetry, plays, and essays. She taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and currently teaches at Rutgers University and as a visiting professor at UC Berkeley. www.celestialtimepiece.com.

This exclusive event promises to be an unforgettable afternoon for fans of horror, literature, and live performance. Don’t miss your chance to experience Pumpkin Head in a whole new way, brought to life by two celebrated artists.

The post-performance discussion will be moderated by Sayer Holliday, the Head of Programming for the New York Society Library. Founded in 1754, New York City’s oldest library is a thriving community of readers, writers, and families. The name and mission trace back to the founding of the library, when there were no other libraries in the city and the word “society” meant a voluntary association of individuals joined for a common purpose. The library is open to all for reading, reference, and many events. www.nysoclib.org

Note: Pumpkin Head contains description of physical violence against a woman.