IT'S A MYSTERY!
Writing within the limitations of a genre poses special challenges to those who want not merely to entertain but to create art. S. J. Rozan of NYC and Joanne Dobson of Brewster, NY do both.
Rozan
is the author of nine novels, most featuring detectives Bill Smith and Lydia Chin.
Her most recent, Absent Friends (Delacorte), does not include Bill and
Lydia and is her poignant response as a native New Yorker to the 9/11 tragedy.
While there is a mystery at the core (how heroic is our fallen hero?), the story
is really about recovery. Rozan has won the Edgar, Nero, Macavity, Shamus and
Anthony awards, and she is a former national board member of Mystery Writers of
America. She is currently a national board member of Sisters in Crime. Her original
occupation? Architect!
Dobson
is the author of five novels, the most recent of which is The Maltese Manuscript
(Poisoned Pen Press, 2003). Her detective is Professor Karen Pelletier, the setting
is academic life, and there’s a thread of Emily Dickinson, about whom Dobson has
studied a great deal. There is also a great deal of humor. Until recently Dobson
taught literature and creative writing at Fordham, and as a scholar she has concentrated
on recovering the various traditions of American women’s literature. She is the
founding editor of Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers and a general
editor of the Rutgers American Women Writers reprint series. Only an insider can
have this much fun with the politics and passions of academia.
This reading celebrating mystery writing is made possible by gifts to the Robert Manning Memorial Fund.
photo credit: S. J. Rozan by Marion Ettlinger
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.