Spoken Interludes to Host Book Readings Program at RiverView in Hastings

Spoken Interludes has invited three leading authors to read a few passages from newly published endeavors and to answer audience questions afterwards on Monday, April 13, 2015 at RiverView in Hastings-on-Hudson. To attend this program, the cost is $25 per person if paid in advance or $30 at the door. An Indian buffet meal and tax are included in the cost.

The program’s speakers will be:

1. Novelist Ann Packer. Book: “The Children’s Crusade” (a family’s history)
2. Biographer Blake Bailey. Book: “The Splendid Things We Planned” (a memoir)
3. Author/Editor Jamie Malanowski. Book: “Commander Will Cushing: Daredevil Hero of the Civil War” (a story about one of America’s most celebrated naval heroes)

The evening’s activity begins with a trip to the buffet table where a large selection of Indian dishes will be available. Food service starts at 6 p.m. and concludes at 7:30 p.m. when the first author is introduced. At the end of the program, books can be purchased and signed by the authors.

The authors will be introduced by Spoken Interludes founder DeLauné Michel. Michel is a resident of Irvington and the author of “Aftermath of Dreaming” and “The Safety of Secrets,” published by HarperCollins. She recently completed writing her third novel.

About the Authors

Ann Packer was born in Stanford, California, in 1959; she grew up near Stanford University where her parents were professors. She attended Yale University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has received fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Michener-Copernicus Society, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is the author of two collections of short fiction, “Swim Back to Me” and “Mendocino and Other Stories,” and two bestselling novels, “Songs Without Words” and “The Dive from Clausen’s Pier.”

Blake Bailey grew up in Oklahoma City and graduated from Tulane. He is the author of “A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates.“ He received a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on his biography “Cheever: A Life,” which won the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Parkman Prize, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer and James Tait Black Memorial Prizes.

Jamie Malanowski has written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times. He is the author of “And the War Came,” about America’s six-month-long descent into war after Lincoln’s election. He lives in Briarcliff Manor, NY. His new book begins with Cushing’s youthful pranks at the U.S. Naval Academy and culminates with his triumphant sinking of the Confederate CSS Albemarle.

Book signings will take place from 8:30 to 9 p.m. Books can be purchased from on-site representatives of The Village Book Store of Pleasantville, NY, and paid for by cash, check or credit card.

The dinner is catered by Navjot Arora, Executive Chef at the restaurant Chutney Masala in Irvington, NY.

The events in this long-running series which started in 1999, typically attract 150 to 200 attendees.

The cost is $25 for advance payment up to 48 hours before the event or $30 at the reception desk.

To reserve for $25 with pre-payment: go to www.chutneymasala.com/order-form. To reserve for $30 without pre-payment, send an email to rsvp@spokeninterludes.com. Attendees that pay by check at the hall should make the checks out to Chutney Masala.

The RiverView is located at 1 Warburton Ave., Hastings-on-Hudson, 914-965-7220, www.riverviewcaterers.com. Parking is free and a large parking lot is located directly across the street from the hall entrance.

Spoken Interludes, www.spokeninterludes.com