Get an early taste of spring with fresh new works by award-winning journalist Jack Hitt and novelist Rachel Pastan on Tuesday, March 25, 7pm, at the Anchor Bar's Mermaid Room (downstairs), 272 College Street at Chapel.
"I guess most of us are condemned to see nothing more than the easy comedy of chickens. But Susan Vitucci saw something else: their potential greatness. Their hidden beauty. Their grandeur."
- from "Chicken Diva", about an opera based on Chicken Little, This American Life by Jack Hitt
"'She wants to nurse,' Jane said.
'Didn't you just nurse her?' Laura asked, handing the baby back.Jane felt a sting, as though Laura had criticized her. What did Laura, with her thin bra strap and her round recreational breasts know about anything?
'Her stomach is the size of a walnut,' she said lightly, lifting her shirt...She was glad to have Maisie back in her arms where she belonged. Nothing was sweeter than holding her daughter, except for all the times she longed to put her down."
- from Lady of the Snakes, by Rachel Pastan
Jack Hitt is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, Harper's, and the public radio program, This American Life. Recently, his work was chosen by Jamaica Kincaid for inclusion in Best American Travel Essays and by Atul Gawande for Best American Science Writing. His radio program for This American Life entitled "Habeas Schmabeas" won the 2007 Peabody Award.
Harcourt published Rachel Pastan's second novel, Lady of the Snakes, in January. Her first novel, This Side of Married (Viking), appeared in 2004 and was recognized by the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers program. Rachel's short fiction has been published in The Georgia Review, The Threepenny Review, Mademoiselle, Prairie Schooner, and many other places. A former Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Fellow, she currently teaches at Swarthmore College and the Bennington Writing Seminars and lives with her family near Philadelphia. For more information, please visit her website: http://www.rachelpastan.com/.
Ordinary Evening's remaining Spring 2008 lineup features writers from the "Mr. Wrong" Anthology, Ann Hood and Dana Kinstler (4/29); and novelist Wally Lamb with poet Jason Shinder (5/20). Please join us! Read writers' biographies, find links, send us an email, and more at http://ordinaryevening.blogspot.com/.
ABOUT THE ORDINARY EVENING SERIES
Started in spring 2005, Ordinary Evening features writers in a monthly reading at the Anchor Bar Mermaid Room, downstairs. Borrowing its name from the poem "An Ordinary Evening in New Haven" by Wallace Stevens, the series aims to bring writers and audiences together in a no-fuss, informal environment in the Elm City to enjoy a little written word on a work-night. Readings are always on a Tuesday at 7pm, free of charge, both drinkers and teetotalers welcome.
