Posts From Author: Month: September 2020

Writers and Storytelling: Melissa Faliveno

Melissa Faliveno is a writer, editor, musician, teacher, and Wisconsinite in New York City. Her debut essay collection, TOMBOYLAND, about gender, class, and the American Midwest, is forthcoming from Jill Soloway’s Topple Books on August 4, 2020. Her work has appeared in Poets & Writers, Prairie Schooner, DIAGRAM, Essay Daily, Green Mountains Review, Lumina, and Midwestern Gothic, among others, and received a notable selection in Best American Essays 2016. She has profiled USWNT star Megan Rapinoe and musicians Valerie June and Jason Isbell; and an essay about her life as a former roller derby skater (moniker: Harlot Brontë) was published in the anthology Derby Life. Born and raised in small-town Wisconsin and a first-generation college graduate, Melissa received a BA in English and creative writing from the University of Wisconsin and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Sarah Lawrence College, where she currently teaches in the graduate writing program. She will be joining Lilliam Rivera, Helen Macdonald, and Roger Rosenblatt on October 20 to tell stories tied to the theme “Nerves of Steel.” Register here for the show! What are you reading right now for solace or escape? Whew—not enough. I just finished Raven Leilani’s Luster, and while it offered […]
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Writers and Storytelling: Roger Rosenblatt

Roger Rosenblatt is the author of five New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and three New York Times bestsellers. He has written seven off-Broadway plays and his essays for Time and the PBS Newshour have won two George Polk Awards, the Peabody, and the Emmy, among others. In 2015, he won the Kenyon Review Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement. He held the Briggs-Copeland appointment in the teaching of writing at Harvard. He is Distinguished Professor of English and Writing at SUNY Stony Brook/Southampton. His new book is Cold Moon: On Life, Love, and Responsibility. He will be joining Lilliam Rivera, Helen Macdonald, and Melissa Faliveno on October 20 to tell stories tied to the theme “Nerves of Steel.” Register here for the show! What are you reading right now for solace or escape? Myself, a new book I’m writing; and I can’t escape. If you could live inside a fictional world, which one would you choose? America; It must be fiction. Are there any quotes you use to inspire you now or anytime? “Be kind, for everyone you meet is carrying a great burden.” — Philo
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Writers and Storytelling: Ian Olasov

Ian Olasov is an adjunct professor and doctoral candidate at the City University of New York Graduate Center. His writing has appeared in Slate, Vox, Public Seminar, and elsewhere. He won the American Philosophical Association’s Public Philosophy Op-Ed Prize in 2016 and 2018. He runs the Ask a Philosopher booth in locations around New York City. His book Ask a Philosopher: Answers to Your Most Important (and Most Unexpected) Questions is out this month. He will be joining Michael Ian Black, Nick Flynn, and Liara Tamani on September 22 to tell stories tied to the theme “All Good Things.” Register here for the show! What are you reading right now for solace or escape? All of my reading right now is pretty heavy, but when I want to take a load off, I read Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Psmith stories. If you could live inside a fictional world, which one would you choose? Star Trek, no question Are there any quotes you use to inspire you now or anytime? Hard to pick one!
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Writers and Storytelling: Nick Flynn

Nick Flynn is the author of This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire and three previous memoirs, including the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award–winning Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, and four volumes of poetry. A professor on the creative writing faculty at the University of Houston, he lives in Brooklyn, New York. He will be joining Michael Ian Black, Ian Olasov, and Liara Tamani on September 22 to tell stories tied to the theme “All Good Things.” Register here for the show! What are you reading right now for solace or escape? Moby Dick If you could live inside a fictional world, which one would you choose? our current simulacrum Are there any quotes you use to inspire you now or anytime? “But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic of my being, do I myself still forever centrally disport in mute calm; and while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me, deep down and deep inland there still I bathe me in eternal mildness of joy.”
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Writers and Storytelling: Liara Tamani

Liara Tamani lives in Houston, Texas. She holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College. She is the author of the acclaimed Calling My Name, which was a 2018 PEN America Literary Award Finalist and a 2018 SCBWI Golden Kite Finalist, and All the Things We Never Knew. She will join Michael Ian Black, Nick Flynn, and Ian Olasov on September 22 to muse on the theme “All Good Things.” Register here to watch the show live! What are you reading right now for solace or escape? Zadie Smith’s Intimations. It’s perfect for these times. If you could live inside a fictional world, which one would you choose? Avatar Are there any quotes you use to inspire you now or anytime? Yes. My go-to quote, which is up on the wall in my study, is by the great Maya Angelou. “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style.”
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