WNBA-NYC and the NYU Creative Writing Program are presenting Women Writing About Mothers and Daughters: A Panel Discussion featuring four women authors who have explored the subject of mother and daughter – the most primal and intense relationship you can have.
Our panelists are Gayle Forman, Molly Jong-Fast, Betsy Lerner, and Nadja Spiegelman. Harriet Shenkman will be the moderator.
The panelists will discuss writing about relationships that can be as fraught, terrifying, and competitive as they are inspirational, supportive, and life-changing.
When: Friday, March 31st
Time: 5pm – 7pm
Where: NYU Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, 58 W 10th St, New York, NY 10003
Register here: //wnba-nyc.wildapricot.org/event-2443228
To give you a taste of what you can expect from our esteemed panelists here are a few get-to-know-you questions with Betsy Lerner and Gayle Forman.
Betsy Lerner
Betsy Lerner is the author of The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers, Food and Loathing, and The Bridge Ladies. She has an MFA in poetry from Columbia University and has received an Academy of American Poets Prize, a Thomas Wolfe Poetry Prize, and The Tony Godwin Publishing Fellowship. As an agent with Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency she represents a wide range of non-fiction. Her popular blog on writing and publishing is betsylerner.com.
WNBA: Did your parent(s) read to you as a child? If so, what was the first book you remember reading together?
BL: Carolyn Haywood wrote a series of “Betsy” books, which I naturally loved and secretly dreamed they were named after me.
WNBA: What are you currently reading?
BL: Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison
WNBA: When did you discover your passion for writing?
BL: When I discovered poetry at fifteen, though I kept diaries since I was 8.
WNBA: How would you describe your writing process?
BL: I don’t really have a process. I’m just extremely compulsive and a workaholic.
Gayle Forman
Gayle Forman is an award-winning journalist and author whose many bestselling young adult novels include the New York Times bestsellers I Was Here, Just One Day, and If I Stay, which was turned into a major motion picture. Most recently she has written her first adult novel, Leave Me. Gayle’s work has been translated into more than 40 languages. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and two daughters. You can find out more about Gayle on her website at gayleforman.com.
WNBA: Did your parent(s) read to you as a child? If so, what was the first book you remember reading together?
GF: Yes. First book I remember is Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman
WNBA: What are you currently reading?
GF: A bunch of things. I’m reading American Street by Ibi Zoboi and listening to A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles and also reading a bunch of upcoming releases to possibly blurb.
WNBA: When did you discover your passion for writing?
GF: I’ve always written, but I never thought of being a novelist until I had my first child and found that I could not travel, or did not want to travel, as much as I needed to to support a journalism career.
WNBA: How would you describe your writing process?
GF: Lately, tortured. I have found it difficult to stay focused lately. I imagine I’m not alone in this.
Refreshments will be served and books will be available for sale. You can register here.
