The
National Book Awards presents
The
Wisest, Kindest Voice:
A Celebration of the Work and Life of William
Maxwell
Featuring Christopher
Carduff, Benjamin
Cheever, Edward
Hirsch,
Daniel
Menaker and Stewart
O’Nan
Thursday, July 31, 6:30pm
Madison Square Park Conservancy’s free
series of summer readings by notable authors in historic
Madison Square Park.
At the foot of the Farragut Monument, located mid-park
at 25th Street. Each program lasts about one hour.
Books are sold at the readings courtesy of Borders.
In his forty years (1936-1975) as fiction editor
of The New Yorker,worked with some of
the most celebrated American writers of the post-war
period: Vladimir Nabokov, J.D. Salinger, John Cheever,
Frank O’Hara, Eudora Welty, John Updike and
Isaac Bashevis Singer. He was an accomplished fiction
writer as well; the author of six novels (two were
nominated for a National Book Award), numerous short
story collections, a memoir and a collection of literary
essays. John Updike described Maxwell’s writing
voice as “one of the wisest and kindest in American
fiction.” Join the National Book Awards and
some of Maxwell’s most prominent friends and
admirers in celebrating his centenary year with a
lively evening of discussion and reminiscence.
(moderator) is the editor of William Maxwell:
Novels and Stories, The Library of America’s
two-volume edition of Maxwell’s fiction. A longtime
book editor, he collaborated with Maxwell on a number
of publications.
has published four novels, The Plagarist,
The Partisan, Famous After Death, and The Good Nanny—and
two nonfiction works, Selling Ben Cheever and Strides:
Running Through History With an Unlikely Athlete.
He is also the editor of The Letters of John Cheeer.
He has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker,
The Nation and The Ladies Home Journal.
is a poet and critic. He has published six books of
poems including Wild Gratitude (1986), which won the
National Book Critics Circle Award. His seventh collection,
Special Orders, was published in March 2008. He has
also written four prose books, including How to Read
a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry (1999), a national
bestseller.
began his twenty-six-year career at The New Yorker
as a fact checker in l969, and seven years later became
an editor specializing in fiction. In l995 he went
to Random House as Executive Editor. In 2001 he became
Executive Editor at Harper Collins, returning to Random
House in 2003 as Editor-in-Chief of the Random House
Publishing Group, He is also the author of two books
of short stories and a novel, The Treatment, which
was published by Knopf.
has published nine novels including The Good Wife,
Everyday People, and A Prayer for the Dying; a book
of short stories In the Walled City, and four works
of non-fiction that include the bestselling book he
co-authored with Stephen King about the Red Sox, Faithful:
Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic
2004 Season.
Photos: Benjamin Cheever by
John Fortunato, Stewart O'Nan by Isolde Ohlbaum, Christopher
Carduff by Emily Carduff, Edward Hirsch by Evin Thayer,
Daniel Menaker by Chip Cooper
