Award-Winning Fiction
Merrill
Feitell, the winner of the 2004 Iowa Short Fiction Award for her story collection,
Here Beneath Low-Flying Planes, and the winner of several other awards,
is a native New Yorker living in Brooklyn. Her stories explore the various ways
in which humans connect with one another—whether it’s a groom-to-be and his drinking
buddies, a woman on the brink of her 33rd birthday and the bride of her ex-boyfriend,
or family members re-gathered at Thanksgiving.
Antonya Nelson (Female Trouble) says this is “a saucy, vibrant collection, both timely and timeless...Feitell loves her characters even if they don’t love themselves, and that makes for a rich, impressive debut.”
Christine
Schutt, also of NYC was named a 2004 National Book Award finalist for her
debut novel, Florida, only to be caught up in a literary firestorm about
all the finalists being relatively unknown women. The stir only makes us more
eager to know her work.
For Alice, the main character in Florida, the Sunshine State signifies the good times before a mysterious accident took her father’s life, times when the family sat around the table talking about leaving their upper-Midwest town and going where it was always warm. When her unstable mother takes refuge in a sanitarium, Alice, age 10, begins what she calls her sleep-over life. She finds consolation in books, and as a storyteller herself, she builds her own home, word by right word, and brings some order to her chaotic world.
Schutt’s language is so poetic, it’s not surprising that her story collection, Nightwork, was named by poet John Ashbery as the best book of 1996; Ashbery now says that this “sad and funny novel...has the same brilliancy of close observation.” Her work has garnered an O. Henry Prize and a Pushcart Prize and is published widely. A Day, A Night, Another Day, Summer, her new story collection, will be released later this year by Northwestern University Press, publisher of Florida.
photo of Merrill Feitell by Kim Albano
All readings include a question & answer period and a reception with books by the author(s) for sale.
Suggested
Donation: $5 ($3 for HVWC members and those under age 18)
The readings at the HVWC are made possible in part by a grant from the Bydale Foundation; the David G. Taft Foundation; the Orchard Foundation; and the Thendara Foundation; with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; and by Westchester Arts Council with funds from Westchester County Government, corporations and individuals.