New Yorker Festival Roundup

I always find myself at the end of the New Yorker Festival wishing I could’ve gotten out to more events, but I still had a pretty great time last weekend, especially watching the conversation between comedian Steve Coogan (left, doing his Jack Lemmon impression in this shot as I recall) and short story writer (not to mention officially recognized genius) George Saunders. “Every time I watch [Coogan],” Saunders said at the start of the show, “my feeling that comedy’s not only fun but important is reinforced.” That clearly resonated with Coogan, who returned repeatedly to his desire to say something about the human condition through his art. (He, in turn, praised Saunders’s “economy of expression” and described the effect of his fiction as “deep matters, lightly skipped over.”)

I also had the opportunity to see Aleksandr Hemon and Monica Ali read from their stories, plus a poetry reading by John Ashbery with a special guest appearance by Ann Lauterbach, who accompanied Ashbery in a joint reading of excerpts from his long poem “Litany”—only the third time that poem has been read in public since its publication nearly thirty years ago. Emily Gordon of Emdashes took copious notes at other Festival events, while David Lat of Above the Law got into the Q&A with Jon Stewart, reflected on an appearance by Stephen Breyer, and pondered criminal defensemeister Gerald Shargel’s analysis of The Sopranos. Those of you who missed out on the events completely can catch a series of webcasts at the New Yorker site, including another appearance by George Saunders, a conversation between Steve Martin and Roz Chast, and a talk by Malcolm Gladwell.

Marion Curtis/StarTraks Photos

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