Our
February 28 reading features two authors whose latest books are both informational
and entertaining.
Marilyn Johnson explores what it’s like to be a librarian in a world of too much information in the delightful This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. With wit and intelligence, she destroys the myths and stereotypes and allows us to watch the digital age unfold from behind the librarian’s desk. Marilyn is also author of The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries, an enthusiastic, life-affirming book about obituaries and the people who write them, read them, collect them, and love them. She has been a staff writer for Life and an editor for Esquire, and has written obituaries for Katharine Hepburn, Princess Diana, Jackie Onassis, Johnny Cash, Bob Hope, and Marlon Brando. Her articles, reviews, essays, and poetry have appeared in many publications and online. Marilyn lives in Briarcliff and is a long-time friend of the Writers’ Center. www.marilynjohnson.net
R.
D. Rosen is the author of three nonfiction books, including Psychobabble,
an examination of cult psychotherapies that was inspired by the term he invented
in 1975, and the recent (2007) A Buffalo in the House: The True Story of a
Man, an Animal, and the American West, whose main character, a bison named
Charlie, was called by Publishers Weekly “one of the most memorable characters
in recent nature writing.” He is also the author of five mystery novels, one of
which, Strike Three You’re Dead, won the Edgar Award. In addition, he is
the creator and coauthor of the humor books Bad Cat, Bad Dog, and
Bad President, two of which were New York Times bestsellers. Between
books, Rosen has worked in television as a writer (Saturday Night Live),
a performer (PBS’s The Generic News, HBO’s Not Necessarily The News
and News to Us, among others), and as a producer in the CBS Network News
Division. He is currently a Senior Editor for ESPN Books.
The authors will be introduced by Peggy Ellsberg (Created to Praise: The Language of Gerard Manley Hopkins).
Suggested
Donation: $5 ($3 for HVWC members)
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, the William Robinson 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 Arts Westchester with funds from Westchester County Government.