Saturday, February 07, 2009

Lisa New

On Thursday evening, Lisa New returned to Penn to read from her forthcoming memoir, Jacob's Cane: One Family's Journey from the Four Lands of Lithuania to the Ports of Baltimore and London, A Memoir in Five Generations, which is being published by Basic Books in the fall. But it was more than a reading. Lisa left Penn about 10 years ago (been that long?) to join the faculty at Harvard. She had and has lots of ties to Philly, and the room was full of family. And Erin Gautsche (KWH program coordinator) did her magical thing, producing (with help from the students) a fabulous Mediterranean spread for the reception. All in all, a memorably warm evening inside 3805 Locust on a bitterly cold night outside. The Writers House web calendar entry describes the event further, and provides links to the video recording as well as to the audio-only recording (mp3). And I took some photos also--not great in quality but they give you a sense of the spirit of the gathering.

Above at right: Nancy Bentley, Lisa New, and Jim English.