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Recorded: Thu, Jan 25, 2007
at Eat, Drink & Be Literary at BAMcafe
Moderated by Brigid Hughes

Presented by the National Book Foundation and Brooklyn Academy of Music

“Tough-minded, brimming with energy and unflinchingly honest.”
—THE NEW YORK TIMES ON A DRINKING LIFE

“I’ve been writing both fiction and nonfiction since the late 1960s. One personal key to getting the work done is The Nap. I take a nap every day, particularly after writing journalism. This gives me two mornings. Or so I’ve persuaded myself. And it allows me to leave the hard accuracy of fact and slide into the quite different sensibility demanded by fiction.”—PETE HAMILL

Born in Brooklyn in 1935, Pete Hamill has an extensive background in journalism. In addition to his work as a journalist, he has received critical acclaim for his bestselling novels Snow in August and Forever, his memoirs, and his biographies.

Recorded: Thu, Jan 11, 2007
at Eat, Drink & Be Literary at BAMcafe
Moderated by Brigid Hughes

Presented by the National Book Foundation and Brooklyn Academy of Music

“Prose masterfully meditates on how quality reading informs great writing, which will warm the cold, jaded hearts of even the most frustrated, unappreciated and unpublished writers.”
—PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY ON READING LIKE A WRITER

“Too often students are being taught to read as if literature were some kind of ethics class or civics class—or worse, some kind of self-help manual. In fact, the important thing is the way the writer uses the language. I think there are writers who would be read more—and, conversely, writers who would never be read at all—if people actually looked at how well or how badly they wrote.”—FRANCINE PROSE

A distinguished critic, essayist, and novelist, Francine Prose is the author of fourteen works of fiction, including A Changed Man and Blue Angel, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and the recent non- fiction book Reading Like a Writer. She has taught literature and writing at Harvard, the University of Arizona, the University of Utah, Bard College and The New School. Prose lives in New York City.