Celebrating First Books

Join us at 4:30 on April 13th at the Writers' Center for a celebration of first books: Jeff Gordinier’s X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking and Steven Kurutz’s Like a Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of a Tribute Band.

“I think Jeff Gordinier might be the secret love child of Tom Wolfe and Douglas Coupland. This book is a fascinating, thought-provoking and funny look at America today. It’s about more than Gen X, it’s about everyone.” —A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically

Jeff Gordinier’s shrewd and hilarious call to arms for the generation that fell between the cracks captures the spirit of a strange and crucial era in American society. Taking off from his controversial Details essay “Has Generation X Already Peaked?” he takes the reader along on an eye-opening journey in his quest to find the essence of X and along the way shows how Gen X innovations in art, comedy, technology, activism, and business have come to define the way we live now.

Jeff is Editor-at-Large for Details magazine and writer for Esquire, GQ, Fortune, the Los Angeles Times and Entertainment Weekly. He is graduate of Princeton University, where he won the Ward Mathis Prize and studied with John McPhee, Joyce Carol Oates, and Russell Banks. His work has been published in anthologies such as Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005, Best Food Writing 2006, and Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 1. He lives in Irvington.

“With the shrewd eye of an anthropologist and the enthusiasm of a fan, Steve Kurutz chronicles the rivalries, absurdities, and occasional ecstasies of bands who engage in the sincerest form of flattery. Like a Rolling Stone shines a generous and affectionate light into one of the murkier corners of rock and roll.” —Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children, The Abstinence Teacher, and The Wishbones

Since the creation of the hit Broadway musical Beatlemania, tribute bands have become an indelible part of the musical landscape, playing everything from local bars to stadiums and offering an accessible, intimate, and surprisingly authentic outlet for fans. Steven Kurutz’s droll and entertaining Like a Rolling Stone chronicles the ups and downs of one of the oldest and best-established acts, Sticky Fingers, which bills itself as “the leading international Rolling Stones tribute show.”

Steven was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania and graduated from Pennsylvania State University. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, where for three years he was a writer for the paper’s City section. His articles have also appeared in Details, W, Playboy, and Spin, among other publications. Steven lives in New York City.

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)

Programs and events at The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center are made possible, in part, by grants 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 the National Endowment for the Arts; and by the Basic Program Support Grant of the Westchester Arts Council with funds from Westchester County Government.

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