December 11: Rob Ackerman and Tom Gavin

Rob Ackerman (Playwright) wrote Tabletop (2001 Drama Desk Award Winner for Best Ensemble Performance) and Disconnect (produced in 2005 by The Working Theater at Classic Stage Company). His first play, Origin of the Species, was made into an award-winning feature film starring Amanda Peet. Rob and his wife, author Carol Weston, live on the Upper West side with their daughters Emme and Lizzi and a cat named Mike.

Thomas Gavin is the author of three novels. Breathing Water, which won the Lillian Fairchild Award; The Last Film of Emile Vico; and Kingkill, named a Notable Book by the American Library Association and an “Editor’s Choice” by Time Magazine. His essays have appeared in The Georgia Review, The Writer’s Chronicle, Best American Essays, and other publications, and have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. An excerpt from his novel in progress, Bridge of Lost Boys, appeared in Icarus: New Writing from Around the World. An emeritus professor of English at The University of Rochester, Gavin has taught at Middlebury College and Delta College, and at a number of writing seminars. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.