Mary Gaitskill read from her latest novel, “The Mare,” on Oct. 27 for the Evening Reading Series at the LeFrak Concert Hall, hosted by Leonard Lopate. Gaitskill previously wrote books like “Bad Behavior” and “Because They Wanted To.” Her novel “Veronica” was a National Book Award finalist. In addition, a short story in “Bad Behavior” titled “Secretary” became a movie of the same name and starred actors Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader. “The Mare” is about Velveteen Vargas, an 11-year-old Dominican girl, who is staying with a host family in upstate New York. Velveteen, also known as Velvet, is a Fresh Air Fund kid from Brooklyn. Fresh Air Fund is an organization sending inner-city kids to…
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Author Meg Wolitzer discusses best-selling novel at Evening Readings
Meg Wolitzer read from “The Interestings,” her New York Times best-selling novel, on Oct. 6 at the LeFrak Concert Hall as part of the Evening Readings series. “The Interestings” is about a girl named Jules and a group of teenagers that become best friends at a summer camp for the arts in 1974. Aside from Jules, who aspires to be an actor, there is Jonah, a musician; Ethan, an animator; Cathy, a dancer; Goodman, a boy Jules likes and goes down the wrong path with; and Ash, Goodman’s sister. It follows these friends for the next four decades as their bonds stay the same, but everything else in their lives…
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Queens College Evening Readings begin with Emily St. John Mandel
Emily St. John Mandel read from her fourth novel, “Station Eleven,” on Sept. 29 evening, for the Queens College Evening Readings series in the LeFrank Concert Hall. The audience, mostly women, seemed eager and interested to see Leonard Lopate, the host, interview Mandel. Mandel is the author of three other novels: “The Lola Quartet,” “The Singer’s Gun” and “Last Night in Montreal.” “Station Eleven,” released on June 2, was a finalist for the National Book Award and is a national best seller. “Station Eleven” is a dystopian novel about a Shakespearean Theater company, The Travelling Symphony. The theater troupe roams the wasteland 20 years after an apocalypse and performs for…
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Author Mona Simpson discusses youthful innocence at Evening Readings
American author Mona Simpson spoke at the Queens College Evening Readings series on April 14 to share her sixth novel, “Casebook,” a suspenseful coming-of-age story. Sharing only a brief excerpt, Simpson described a bittersweet account of a married couple as they undergo the process of a divorce narrated from the standpoint of their son’s pre-teenage eyes. The evening reading began with the reading of the book’s “note to reader,” eluding into a personal memoir honoring the narrator’s “fledgling of publishing concern.” It pays homage the seed of inspiration and creativity that was planted into their imagination as a child, which was a comic book series he lamented. The note to…
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QC professor’s novel, “Song of the Shank”, sheds light on the slave narrative
Following the success of recent movies such as “12 Years a Slave” and “Django Unchained,” critics asked whether another story about slaves was really necessary. After reading “Song of the Shank” by Jeffrey Renard Allen, New York Times book reviewer Mitchell S. Jackson felt compelled to answer with a resounding “yes.” On Nov. 11, Allen discussed his latest work as part of Queens College’s 39th Anniversary Evening Reading Series. “Song of the Shank” is the reimagined and fictional biography of “Blind Tom,” one of the 19th centuries most prominent performers and the first black person to play at the White House at the age of 10. Blind Tom, born as the slave Thomas Wiggins in…
