Bookfest Sunday

Saul Bellow in Life & Letters
Joyce Carol Oates & Benjamin Taylor
With Peter Orner

Gain insights into the lasting legacy of Saul Bellow, whose works include The Adventures of Augie March, Henderson the Rain King and Herzog. Author Benjamin Taylor has edited Bellow’s prolific collection of personal letters into Saul Bellow: Letters. He joins acclaimed writer Joyce Carol Oates in a discussion of this brilliant and complex artist. Peter Orner (Love and Shame and Love) moderates.

Literature as a Way of Life
Harold Bloom, Angus Fletcher & Sam Tanenhaus
With Susannah Carson

Join three literary greats as they elucidate the role of the book critic. Via live video, renowned literary critic Harold Bloom joins Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book Review and Angus Fletcher, professor of English and Comparative Literature at the Graduate School of CUNY, to discuss literary criticism and its influence. Susannah Carson (A Truth Universally Acknowledged) moderates.

Innovation & the Writer
Adam Levin & Ben Marcus
With Dan Schifrin

Join this provocative panel discussion exploring the terrain of contemporary literature. Adam Levin is the author of The Instructions and the short story collection, Hot Pink. Ben Marcus authored three works of fiction, including The Flame Alphabet. The Contemporary Jewish Museum’s Dan Schifrin moderates.

Philip Levine
A reading with The U.S. Poet Laureate

The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, 83-year old Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Levine was born and raised in industrial Detroit, a city that inspires the urban perspective and depictions of blue collar life in his work. Join Levine as he discusses his writing career and his new role as U.S. Poet Laureate.

A Tribute to Cynthia Ozick
With Dara Horn & Joshua Lambert

Share an afternoon with Dara Horn, author of In the Image and The World to Come and Tablet’s Joshua Lambert, author of American Jewish Fiction, as they honor literary treasure Cynthia Ozick. Ozick, author of six novels, including Foreign Bodies, The Shawl and The Puttermesser Papers, joins the panelists via live video for a discussion about Jewish American literature and a reading from her latest book, Foreign Bodies.

The Spinoza Problem –
Dr. Irvin Yalom

Why did the Nazis save a trove of books from seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza’s personal library? What did they want with the books of a Jewish thinker whom they reviled? Acclaimed psychotherapist and bestselling author Dr. Irvin Yalom (When Nietzsche Wept) unravels the origins and meaning of this mystery in his new novel, The Spinoza Problem.

The Iconoclast: Yoram Kaniuk
With Joshua Cohen

In a rare U.S. appearance, Israeli novelist, painter and journalist Yoram Kaniuk recounts his times with Billie holiday, James dean, Charlie “Bird” Parker and Marlon Brando in 1950s bohemian New York. his memoir, Life on Sandpaper, takes place during the years between the Israeli war of independence and Kaniuk’s return to the fledgling state in the early 1960s. Joshua Cohen, author of Witz, hosts.

tickets: http://bit.ly/bookfest2012_sunday