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December 17, 2007
BROOKLYN WAS MINE
[Press release]
Edited by Chris Knutsen and Valerie Steiker
Featuring essays by:
Emily Barton, Susan Choi, Rachel Cline, Philip Dray, Jennifer Egan, Colin Harrison, Joanna Hershon, Jonathan Lethem, Dinaw Mengestu, Elizabeth Gaffney, Lara Vapnyar, Lawrence Osborne, Katie Roiphe, John Burnham Schwartz, Vijay Seshadri, Darcey Steinke, Darin Strauss, Alexandra Styron, and Robert Sullivan. With an introduction by Phillip Lopate.
The authors and editors are generously donating the proceeds of Brooklyn Was Mine to Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. (http://www.dddb.net/php/aboutdddb.php)
A fertile ground that has nurtured literature and authors for over a century, Brooklyn has given readers some of America’s greatest literary voices, including Walt Whitman, Thomas Wolfe, and Henry Miller, and now this legendary borough is home to a new generation of novelists, memoirists, poets and journalists. This new gathering of authors represents a diversity of voices that have collectively attracted outstanding critical and national attention for their work Brooklyn continues to be synonymous with artistic expression and inspiration. It has become what Greenwich Village was for an earlier generation, a wellspring of artistic expression.
Now BROOKLYN WAS MINE (Riverhead Trade Paperback Original; January 2, 2008; $15) edited by Chris Knutsen and Valerie Steiker, an anthology of original nonfiction essays about Brooklyn, affirms this notable trend in American literary life and gives celebrated writers an opportunity to pay tribute to the borough they love.
In “Reading Lucy,” Jennifer Egan introduces readers to Lucy––a woman who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II and wrote almost daily letters to her husband overseas. In “A Coney Island of the Mind,” Katie Roiphe remembers the thrill of riding the famous Cyclone rollercoaster while on a date with her future husband. Colin Harrison’s “Diamonds” details Brooklyn’s, and his own, ongoing love affair with baseball. And John Burnham Schwartz writes about the changing face of the borough his father left––only to return when his son took up residence there in “You Can’t Go Home Again.”
With humor and insight these essays draw on the past and present to create a compelling collection––one that is as brilliant and diverse as the borough that inspired it.
About the Editors:
Chris Knutsen is a senior editor at Vogue. Formerly he worked as an editor at GQ, The New Yorker, and Riverhead Books. He is the co-editor of the literary anthology Committed: Men Tell Stories of Love, Commitment, and Marriage. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters.
Valerie Steiker is the author of a memoir, The Leopard Hat: A Daughter’s Story, and a senior editor at Vogue. She previously worked at Artforum and The New Yorker. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and son.
BROOKLYN WAS MINE
Edited by Chris Knutsen and Valerie Steiker
Riverhead Trade Paperback Original; January 2, 2008
978-1-59448-282-3; $15.00
Two Brooklyn Was Mine book readings are currently scheduled in Brooklyn:
JANUARY 9, 7:30 PM
Park Slope Barnes and Noble (267 7th Avenue at 6th Street)
Authors:
Jennifer Egan
Susan Choi
Darin Strauss
JANUARY 15, 7:00 PM
BookCourt (163 Court Street near Pacific Street)
Authors:
Emily Barton
Darcey Steinke
Alexandra Styron
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children’s trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin, Philomel, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others. The Penguin Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.
Posted by lumi at December 17, 2007 5:15 AM