The Aspen New York Books Series – presented by the Aspen Institute and Aspen Words – features a conversation among authors Vivian Gornick, Dani Shapiro, and Darin Strauss on “The Art of the Memoir.”
Vivian Gornick is an American critic, journalist, essayist, and memoirist. Her work has appeared in The Village Voice, The New York Times, The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, and many other publications. She has published eleven books; the most recent, The OddWoman and the City, was published in May, 2015. In 2014 she was the Bedell Distinguished Visiting Professor in Nonfiction at he University of Iowa.
Dani Shapiro’s most recent books include the memoirs Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life, and Devotion, and the novels Black & White and Family History. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, The Virginia Quarterly Review, n+1, One Story, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Op-Ed pages, and many other publications, and has been featured on “Oprah” and “This American Life.”
Darin Strauss is a national- and internationally-bestselling author. His books have been New York Times, Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and NPR Best Books of the Year, among other honors. He is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship and numerous other prizes. Strauss recently began a stint as a recurring columnist on faith at Salon, has written screenplays for Disney, Gary Oldman, and Julie Taylor. He is the Clinical Professor of Fiction at NYU’s creative writing program.
This conversation was recorded on Thursday, November 19, 2015 at Roosevelt House in New York City.
