JULY

MAD. SQ. READS
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, William Maxwell 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.
Event Details

AUGUST

2008 National Book Awards
August 15
Judges must receive books, bound galleys, or bound
manuscripts no later than August 15, 2008.

OCTOBER

2008 National Book Awards
National Book Award Finalists announced.

NOVEMBER

2008 National Book Awards
November 19
National Book Awards Ceremony
New York City