Pen Parentis Literary Salons: our 24th Season is at a Spectacular End!

Incredible authors are brought together with YOU the audience online! This livecast event will feature short readings by extraordinary Pen Parentis authors followed by a lively roundtable.

December 8th at 7pm we hold our End of Year Celebration - and this one features not one but THREE superstar authors.

THE AUTHORS ARE:

Patty Dann, who has published four acclaimed novels and countless nonfiction articles and books, is probably best known for her novel Mermaids, which was made into a movie starring Cher, Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci. Her nonfiction book The Butterfly Hours was chosen as one of the “Best Books for Writers” by Poets & Writers Magazine.  Dann also wrote The Goldfish Went on Vacation: A Memoir of Loss, which received a Foreword Indie Gold Award for Family & Relationships. She is also a beloved teacher: New York Magazine named her one of the “Great Teachers of NYC.” She earned an MFA in writing from Columbia University and a B.A. from the University of Oregon and has taught at the Fairfield County Writers’ Studio, Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute and the West Side YMCA in NYC. Dann is married to journalist, Michael Hill and has one son and two stepsons. She returns to Pen Parentis for the third time, and we can't wait!

-AND-

Trey Ellis is a novelist, screenwriter, essayist and professor at Columbia University. He is the author of Bedtime Stories: Adventures in the Land of Single-Fatherhood. His acclaimed first novel, Platitudes, was reissued by Northeastern University Press along with his influential essay, "The New Black Aesthetic." He is also the author of Home Repairs and Right Here, Right Now which was a recipient of the American Book Award. His work for the screen includes the Emmy nominated Tuskegee Airmen, and Good Fences starring Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg which was shortlisted for the PEN award for Best Teleplay of the year. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, GQ, Playboy, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, among others and he has contributed audio commentary to NPR's All Things Considered. His first play, Fly, was produced and performed at the Lincoln Center Institute, The Pasadena Playhouse and the New Victory Theater in New York. He lives in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife and three children and is an Associate Professor of Film at Columbia University. You can learn more about his work at TreyEllis.com.

-AND-

Julia Glass is the author of five previous books of fiction, including the best-selling Three Junes, which won the National Book Award, and I See You Everywhere, winner of the Binghamton University John Gardner Fiction Book Award. Other published works include the Kindle Single Chairs in the Rafters and essays in several anthologies. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Glass is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emerson College. She lives with her family in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

The Pen Parentis Literary Salon is a unique series that shatters parental stereotypes as it celebrates the diverse creative work of writers that are also parents. On the second Tuesday of each month September through May, join us online! Chat with our authors, be heard! Participate in discussions with writers in real time.

Readings by small groups of exemplary authors, writers, and poets (all are parents, usually organized by a theme) are followed by lively roundtable discussions moderated by Pen Parentis founder M. M. De Voe and Salons curator Christina Chiu. Come join the fun! You don't have to be a parent or even a writer to enjoy these events - all lovers of the written word are welcome to join us!

Salons moderators are former Columbia School of the Arts classmates, M. M. De Voe and Christina Chiu. In addition to founding Pen Parentis, De Voe is a Pushcart-nominated author of short fiction, with work in the Shirley Jackson Award winning anthology Twisted Book of Shadows and in literary journals in Israel, Great Britain, Canada, and the US, and forthcoming in the anthology Delirium Corridors. Chiu has been Salons curator for five years. Her first novel, Beauty, was published in 2020 after winning the James Alan McPherson Award. She is also one of the originators of the Asian American Writers Workshop.

Audience members are encouraged to engage with the authors and moderators during the session via chat while logged into YouTube or Facebook accounts.

BUY THEIR BOOKS THROUGH THIS LINK and your purchase will support Pen Parentis as well as an indie bookstore near you, wherever you are.

The event is moderated by co-hosts Christina Chiu, who curates this series and whose novel Beauty won the James Alan McPherson Award and launched in May, and M. M. De Voe, the recipient of multiple arts grants, who founded Pen Parentis.

For ten years this series has shattered negative stereotypes of parents in literary careers by celebrating the creative diversity of high-quality work penned by professional writers who have kids.

Pen Parentis is a literary nonprofit that helps writers stay on creative track after starting a family. While the event is free and open to the general public, we would welcome a minimum $10 donation per attendee to cover costs.

This PEN PARENTIS LITERARY SALON is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by LMCC.

If you have reached for a good movie or book at any time during this pandemic, thank a writer. Support the arts so they can support you.

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