![[A Reading by Joanna Scott]](http://www.conjunctions.com/images/event_image.php?id=135955)
On Monday, April 1, at 7:00 p.m. in the László Z. Bitó ’60 Auditorium, Reem-Kayden Center (RKC), novelist Joanna Scott reads from her work. Presented by the Innovative Contemporary Fiction Reading Series, introduced by novelist and Bard literature and writing professor Mary Caponegro, and followed by a conversation with Dinaw Mengestu, the reading is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required. Books by Joanna Scott will be available for sale, courtesy of Oblong Books & Music.Exploring subjects ranging from beauty and temptation to the motion of thought and the elusive potential of the imagination, Joanna Scott’s publications include Various Antidotes: Stories and the novel Arrogance, both PEN/Faulkner finalists; The Manikin, a Pulitzer Prize finalist; and Follow Me, a New York Times Notable Book. Her most recent novels are Careers for Women (2017) and De Potter's Grand Tour (2014). Scott has written about modern and contemporary authors including Samuel Beckett, Virginia Woolf, W. G. Sebald, Maureen Howard, William Gass, and J.M. Coetzee. Her play, Speakeasy, was produced by the Todd Theater Troupe at La MaMa and toured fringe festivals around the world.
Scott founded and directs The Inspiration Project, a volunteer literacy program for adults with developmental disabilities. She is a founding board member of the literary press Open Letter, and she is a contributing editor of Bard’s literary journal, Conjunctions, which published her story “Infidels” in the Fall 2018 issue, Conjunctions:71, A Cabinet of Curiosity.
Scott received her master’s degree from Brown University and has taught creative writing at Brown, the University of Maryland, and Princeton University; she is currently the Roswell Smith Burrows Professor of English at the University of Rochester. Scott is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Ambassador Book Award from the English-Speaking Union, and the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
PRAISE FOR JOANNA SCOTT
“The wit, the magical prose and the daring devices of Scott’s writing create an enchantment . . . her soundings of the depth of our natures are as accurate and revealing as Thoreau’s measurements of Walden Pond.” ―Nation
“A greatly gifted and highly original artist.” —New York Times Book Review
“Scott writes with the crispest and most telling of sentences. Her grasp of the mysteries within us is profound.” —Newsday
“Scott’s prose is sensitive and beautifully crafted . . . Her characters are both eminently human and touched with magic and mystery.” —Washington Post Book World
“One of the finest writers of her generation: elegant, sublime, of the earthy earth.” —Paul West
“What most amazes me about Joanna Scott’s extraordinary narratives is the vastness of the world her imagination ranges through and the rich, Dickensian variety of voices and characters one encounters.” —Robert Coover
“A greatly gifted and highly original artist.” —New York Times Book Review
“Scott writes with the crispest and most telling of sentences. Her grasp of the mysteries within us is profound.” —Newsday
“Scott’s prose is sensitive and beautifully crafted . . . Her characters are both eminently human and touched with magic and mystery.” —Washington Post Book World
“One of the finest writers of her generation: elegant, sublime, of the earthy earth.” —Paul West
“What most amazes me about Joanna Scott’s extraordinary narratives is the vastness of the world her imagination ranges through and the rich, Dickensian variety of voices and characters one encounters.” —Robert Coover
