Writer Amy Shearn Launches New Author Discussion Series At The Park Slope Library
Park Slope is one of the best neighborhoods in the city to hear authors talk about their work, and it’s about to get even better.
Brooklyn-based author Amy Shearn is bringing her skill for gathering talented writers, and her infectious charm, to a new interview series at the Park Slope Library. BOOKISH launches on Tuesday, May 26 at 6pm, when Shearn will speak with Kate Bolick about her book Spinster: Making A Life of One’s Own — and you can expect equally compelling acts to follow.
Ahead of its start, we asked Shearn what neighbors should expect from the series, who else will participate, why our library is the perfect spot for this, and more.
PSS: What inspired you to start up new series?
Amy Shearn: It really was my friend Ben Gocker’s idea — he is a librarian at the Park Slope branch, and noticed a lot of patrons there checking out my novel The Mermaid of Brooklyn, so we started talking about doing some events together. Also, I’ve always loved libraries, and this is a good excuse for me to get to pretend that I work in one.
What can people expect from the series — what will make this different from some of the other author events out there?
As a novelist and teacher myself I love picking apart how books are made, and look forward to discussing the craft of writing with my guests. Also, I guarantee audience members will have their lives changed forever, or they get their money back. (PS: It’s free.)
You’ve been running another great series, Lit At Lark, at Lark Cafe in Ditmas Park for a couple years now — what have you learned from that, and what’s one thing that’s been successful about it that you hope to replicate?
Having hosted my reading series Lit at Lark for two years, I eventually realized that the most fun part was the question-and-answer period after the readings, where everyone loosened up a bit and started talking about writing, reading, publishing, and sometimes totally unexpected (and unprintable!) topics. So this time we’ll skip right to the interview section, and make it more of a conversation about the art and craft of writing. I’m told I create a comfortable environment that puts people at ease, so I hope I can take advantage of that to trick writers into revealing all their deepest darkest secrets.
Just kidding! (Or am I.)
What are you most excited to talk about with your first author, Kate Bolick?
Oh, I’m so excited about everything that has to do with Kate. She is brilliant. And I think her book Spinster: Making A Life of One’s Own is an interesting one in that it’s this very literary, thoughtful book that retells a good deal of history while also has tapping into a powerful cultural zeitgeist. It’s actually about three or four books in one. I can’t wait to ask her about how she wove all these strands together, and how she resisted making it just a bloated version of the Atlantic cover story, “All the Single Ladies,” that got her the book deal. That article was great, but those kinds of books can be so dreary. Instead, Kate’s writing about Edna St. Vincent Millay, and forgotten writers like Maeve Brennan, and how being in charge of your own life is so crucial to making significant art.
Have you got some more authors lined up already — any hints on who we can expect to see in the future?
Yes! I have some fantastic people in mind, but the next one I have booked, for June 18th, is the inimitable Amy Sohn.
You are, of course, a writer yourself — what are you working on these days?
I’ve been working on a novel for about two years now — actually, Mary, I think you and I are always talking about this same novel, and I’d better finish it up so I have something new to say the next time you ask me. It’s a ghost story, and it’s about Brooklyn, and haunted houses, and forgotten neighborhoods, and gentrification, and history, and books, and loss, and grieving, and love, and guess what, one of the main characters is a librarian!
I have a draft, but my writing time is so fragmented that revising it in a coherent way has been challenging. But in the fall both my kids will be in school full-time and I will finally have to time to focus and finish the novel, and will probably end up dedicating it to Bill de Blasio for pushing full-day pre-K.
Anything else you’d like neighbors to know?
BOOKISH is going to bring really top-notch authors to this fabulous, convenient location — the Park Slope Library has this lovely, spacious event space — and it’s going to be a great opportunity to get to know the authors and their books in a whole new light. It’s going to fun. So everyone should come.
Check out the first BOOKISH at the Park Slope Library (431 6th Avenue at 9th Street) on Tuesday, May 26 at 6pm, when Amy Shearn will speak with Kate Bolick about her book Spinster: Making A Life of One’s Own. It’s free!