Darcey Steinke is the author of the New York Times Notable memoir Easter Everywhere, as well as five novels. In 2017 Maggie Nelson wrote a foreword for a new edition of Suicide Blonde. With Rick Moody, she edited Joyful Noise: The New Testament Revisited. Her books have been translated into ten languages, and her nonfiction has appeared widely. Her web-story Blindspot was a part of the 2000 Whitney Biennial. She has been both a Henry Hoyns and a Stegner Fellow and Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, and has taught at the Columbia University School of the Arts, Barnard, The American University of Paris, and Princeton. Flash Count Diary is her most recent book. On June 18, she will be speaking at House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining show, The Song Sings Itself, alongside Michael Bronski, Trish Hall, and John Burnham Schwartz. We spoke to Darcey ahead of the show. What is your earliest memory involving reading or writing? I remember going to the Library with my mother when I was three. The dark room with all the books. I had been there with my parents before but now I really wanted my own library card. The librarian said no, I had to be […]
Michael Bronski is an independent scholar, journalist, and writer who has been involved in social justice movements since the 1960s. He has been active in gay liberation as a political organizer, writer, editor, publisher and theorist since 1969. He is the author of numerous books including the recently published A Queer History of the United States for Young People. He is Professor of the Practice in Activism and Media in the Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Harvard University. On June 18, he will be speaking at House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining show, The Song Sings Itself, alongside Trish Hall, John Burnham Schwartz, and Darcey Steinke. We spoke to Michael ahead of the show. What are you currently working on? I am now working on The World Turned Upside Down: The Queerness of Children’s Literature which is not about gay characters in books but an investigation into the tension between children’s limitless, anarchic imagination and the social mandate to turn them into responsible adults. It is wide ranging – from nursery rhymes to Victorian children’s novels to Harry Potter – and looks at children’s relationships to sex, death, and psychic survival. Obviously I never got over my “Freud period” in college. I […]
Boris Fishman was born in Minsk, Belarus. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Travel + Leisure, the London Review of Books, New York magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian, among other publications. He is the author of the novels A Replacement Life, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and winner of the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and the American Library Association’s Sophie Brody Medal, and Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo, which was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and his newest book Savage Feast: Three Generations, Two Continents, and Dinner Table (A Memoir with Recipes). On May 21, he will be speaking at House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining show, The Root of it All, alongside Damian Barr, Eve Ensler, and Kevin Young. We spoke to Boris ahead of the show. What is your earliest memory involving reading or writing? A small bedroom in Minsk, Belarus, in 1980-something. Writing desk, fold-out bed, Persian carpet on the wall, Persian carpet on the floor. On all fours over the latter, yours truly mesmerized by the sports pages of Nedelya (The […]
Damian Barr is the author of Maggie & Me, which the Sunday Times named Memoir of the Year. He is Literary Ambassador for the Savoy in London where he hosts his Literary Salon, which has been going for ten years with hundreds of prominent guests including Bret Easton Ellis, John Waters, Colm Tóibín, Jojo Moyes, David Mitchell, and Mary Beard. The Salon has partnered with the BBC Short Story Prize and the Man Booker, Hay, and the Windham-Campbell Prizes. Barr is also Literary Editor of the Soho House group and appears regularly on BBC Radio 4. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was 2013’s Stonewall Writer of the Year. He lives in Brighton, England. His debut novel You Will Be Safe Here will be published in May. On May 21, he will be speaking at House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining show, The Root of it All, alongside Eve Ensler, Boris Fishman, and Kevin Young. We spoke to Damian ahead of the show. What is your earliest memory involving reading or writing? My Mum had an old Golden Virginia Tobacco tin filled with words written in block capitals on tiny squares of paper. I’d pick a word out and she’d teach me how to say […]
Andri Snær Magnason is an Icelandic writer of novels, poetry, plays, short stories, essays and films. His novel LoveStar got a Philip K. Dick Special Citation, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire in France, and “Novel of the year” in Iceland. The Story of the Blue Planet was the first children’s book to receive the Icelandic Literary Award and has been published or performed in 35 countries. He co-directed “Dreamland,” a feature-length documentary film based on his book, Dreamland: A Self Help Manual for a Frightened Nation. His most recent book, The Casket of Time, has now been published in about 10 languages. On April 16, he will be speaking at House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining show, The Strength of Ignorance, alongside Max Boot, Ross Gay, and Vicky Ward. We spoke to Andri ahead of the show. What is your earliest memory involving reading or writing? My very first reading memory is reading dinosaur books, as a child in New Hampshire. What is your favorite line from your current work? I can pick a slogan from the TimeBox firm in The Casket of Time. “No More Februaries!” What is your favorite first line of a novel? The only I can remember is Kafka: “As […]
Elizabeth Keenan and Greg Wands write together as E.G. Scott. Their first novel The Woman Inside came out earlier this year. Keenan is a writer and publishing consultant based in New York City. She has worked in book publishing for eighteen years for imprints of Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, and Macmillan. Wands writes for the page and screen and is excited to have a television series and feature film project in the works in addition to the novel. On March 26, they will be speaking at House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining show, Seeing Blindly, alongside Patrick Radden Keefe, Safiya Sinclair, and Aatish Taseer. We spoke to Elizabeth and Greg ahead of the show. What is your earliest memory involving reading or writing? Greg: Saving up chore money to buy books at the book fair in my elementary school gymnasium. Liz: The excitement of being allowed to order as many books as I wanted on the Scholastic order form in first grade, and feeling pure joy when they arrived. What is your favorite line from your current work? Greg: “The best thing about being dead is that no one suspects you when bodies start turning up.” Liz: “My wife and I are different types of liars.” What is your favorite first […]
Aatish Taseer is the author of the memoir Stranger to History: A Son’s Journey Through Islamic Lands and three acclaimed novels: The Way Things Were, a finalist for the 2016 Jan Michalski Prize; The Temple-Goers, which was short-listed for the Costa First Novel Award; and Noon; and, a new work of nonfiction, The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. He is a contributing writer for The International New York Times and lives in New Delhi and New York. On March 26, he will be speaking at House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining show, Seeing Blindly, alongside Patrick Radden Keefe, Elizabeth Keenan, Safiya Sinclair, and Greg Wands. We spoke to Aatish ahead of the show. What is your earliest memory involving reading or writing? We went, my mother and I, to a colony market in South Delhi, and bought Coleridge’s poems. I must have been five, or six. In weak fluctuating light, she read me In Xanadu. It was the purest connection I have ever known with sound as a semantic force in its own right. For years, I knew all the words, and never thought it even slightly important to know what they meant. What is […]
E. Lockhart is the author of the New York Times-bestselling We Were Liars, which has been published in 33 countries. She is also the author of the National Book Award finalist The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and the New York Times-bestselling novel Genuine Fraud, which Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner are adapting for their first feature film. Emily is speaking at House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining show on April 25th, themed Also Known As, alongside Noah Hawley, Barry Levinson, and Åsne Seierstad. We spoke to Emily ahead of the show… What is your earliest memory involving reading or writing? I wrote a story about an orange sleeping bag that climbed a tree. It was based on an actual orange bag that I owned. I still write about inanimate objects having feelings, sometimes. What is your favorite line from your current work? “She became the kind of woman it would be a great mistake to underestimate.” What is your favorite first line of a novel? I never have favorites but here is one I love: “The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.” –Donna Tart, The […]
Åsne Seierstad is an award-winning Norwegian journalist and writer known for her work as a war correspondent. She is the author of The Bookseller of Kabul, One Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal, Angel of Grozny: Inside Chechnya, One of Us, and her new book Two Sisters: A Father, His Daughters, and Their Journey into the Syrian Jihad. Åsne is speaking at House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining show on April 25th, themed Also Known As, alongside Noah Hawley, Barry Levinson, and Emily Lockhart. We spoke to Åsne ahead of the show… What is your favorite first line of a novel? Knut Hamsun, Hunger: “It was in that time when I walked around hungry in Kristiania, that strange city no one can leave without being marked by it” What advice would you give to aspiring writers? Turn off social media! What writer past or present do you wish you could eat dinner with? Mikhail Bulgakov What are you reading right now? Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire Are there any quotes you use to inspire you? “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.” ― Søren Kierkegaard
