2011 APPEARANCES
Saturday, September 17: Baltimore
We kick off in “Balmer,” which would sort of be like opening a new play out of town, except the 5ive:Ten Reading Series is way more cool than dinner theater in Dubuque.
Curated by the awesome team of Jen Michalski (editor of the online quarterly JMWW) and Michael Kimball (author of the excellent new novel Us), the 5:10 goes down in the swanky Minas Gallery on “the Avenue” in a part of the city that Avon and Stringer didn’t visit often enough.
Also reading: Leigh Newman, John Brandon and Christine Grillo. Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Summer of Naked Swim Parties and Drinking Closer to Home, will also be in the house.
Afterward—which will be early, as the event kicks off at 5:10—we shall repair to Bryant’s for drinks, conversation, and drinks.
Minas Gallery, 815 W 36th St, Baltimore , 5:10pm
Tuesday, October 4: Brooklyn
10/4, good buddy! We celebrate the official release date at WORD Brooklyn, the hippest bookstore in Gotham’s hippest borough, as part of the Largehearted Lit Reading Series, run by the incomparable David Gutowski, who is indeed large-hearted.
Also on the ticket: John Sellers, who will read from his new father-son memoir The Old Man and the Swamp, and a special musical guest, making her first NYC appearance in seven years: my wife, the great Stephanie St. John.
WORD Brooklyn, 126 Franklin Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222, 7pm
After starting the season on the road, we’re back in the Paltz, in the cozy splendor of Inquiring Minds, for the home opener. After the reading—which is not, I should add, kid friendly, as the book contains Adult Language, Adult Situations, and Brief Nudity—we shall head to Bacchus for beer, conversation, and beer, before going home and relieving the babysitter.
Inquiring Minds Bookstore, 6 Church Street, New Paltz, 7pm
Saturday, October 8: Maplewood, N.J.
My lone appearance in the state of my birth will be at [words], the excellent bookstore in downtown Maplewood. There’s plenty of parking downtown, but it’s also a hop-skip-and-stumble from the train station, if you prefer to avail yourself on New Jersey Transit.
After the reading, it’s on to St. James Gate Publickhouse for beer, conversation, beer, and adding extra “k”s to words.
[words] Bookstore, 179 Maplewood Avenue, Maplewood, 7:30 pm
The famed KGB Sunday Night Reading Series, curated by the great Suzanne Dottino, presents “Dad’s Night Out: An Evening of Readings by Literary Fathers.”
We get to chill in one of my old haunts—and still one of my favorite bars in all the world—with my fellow dad-scribes Matthew Norman (Domestic Violets), James P. Othmer (The Futurist and Holy Water) and Darin Strauss (More Than It Hurts You, Chang & Eng, The Real McCoy, Half a Life). I’m psyched to share the stage with three of my faves.
KGB Bar, 85 E 4th St, New York, NY, 7pm
Saturday & Sunday, October 15-16, Huddleston, Virginia
I am the minor satellite in an otherwise star-studded weekend “reader’s retreat” at a lovely resort on a lovely lake in western Virginia: Club Read.
With me will be my friends Jessica Anya Blau and Susan Henderson; Joyce Maynard, Sena Jeter Naslund, Heather Newton, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Gretchen Rubin, Amy Stolls, Caroline Todd and Adriana Trigiani; and my fellow Harpers dude, Domestic Violets author Matthew Norman.
Do come join us if you can. There’s a rumor I will be casting birth charts.
Mariner’s Landing Resort and Conference Center
1217 Graves Harbor Trail
Huddleston, Virginia 24104
We’re back in the Hudson Valley—in Woodstock, home to the country’s first artist colony, and the grooviest village on earth—for one final upstate appearance.
The Golden Notebook, one of the best bookstores in the English-speaking world, presents an evening with me and my friend Robin Antalek, author of the sublime novel The Summer We Fell Apart.
We’ll be gathering at Oriole 9, a great bar/restaurant, so when we’re done with the reading, we can hang out for drinks and conversation and drinks.
Oriole 9, 17 Tinker Street, Woodstock, 7pm
Sunday, October 23: Fathermucker Day!
The day on which the book takes place.
Tuesday, November 8: New York
I am a guest of Pen Parentis, a coalition of parents who write (or writers with kids, if you prefer), at their monthly Literary Salon. And we do mean salon. Not only is the reading at an elegant library bar (!) in a gorgeous hotel in the Financial District, but I’m reading with Elissa Schappell, author of Blueprints for Building Better Girls, who is flat-out hilarious.
The Libertine Library at Gild Hall
15 Gold Street (second floor) at Platt, New York, 7pm
Friday, November 11: Los Angeles
Book Soup! Details TBA.