Three acclaimed women authors talk about their latest books, the craft of humor, and the role of comic fiction in the current social and political landscape. What makes something funny? Why is humor important? How does absurdity function both as entertainment and as a form of commentary on serious matters? The books under discussion range widely in focus, from the world of literary event planning to the interior lives of the social media generation to the surreal landscape of the afterlife. This meeting of great comic minds promises to be inspiring, profound, and laugh-out-loud funny. Novelist Susan Coll, whose newly published novel, Word Salad, “is a moving, thoughtful exploration of the complicated nature of grief and the power that books have to help us find ourselves when we’re lost,” writes national bestseller Grant Grinder. Coll is the events advisor at Politics and Prose Bookstore. Amy Fusselman‘s latest book, Cloud Six, which Literary Hub named A Most Anticipated Book of the Year, is a comic novel about an unfortunate couple navigating the lowest tier of heaven. Baltimore’s Sydney Rende’s short story collection has been called “an invaluable tip-sheet to the way we live now, I Could Be Famous captures perfectly the hazards of young womanhood in a world where everyone is desperate to be looked at, but wary of being seen.” (Jonathan Dee, author of Pulitzer Prize Finalist The Privileges). Betsy Boyd, director of Creative Writing and Publishing Arts MFA program at the University of Baltimore, joins us as moderator. Her fiction has been published in Kenyon Review, American Short Fiction, Five Points, and StoryQuarterly.
FUNNY LADIES OF COMEDY: STARS OF COMIC FICTION TALK SHOP
10:00 am
Presented by CityLit Project
Susan Coll
Susan Coll, whose ninth novel, Word Salad, a comedy of manners, “reminds us that sometimes things have to completely fall apart for them to perfectly come together.” Her previous books include Bookish People; The Stager, a New York Times and Chicago Tribune Editor’s Choice; and Acceptance, which was made into a television movie starring Joan Cusack. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times Book Review and the Washington Post. She is the events advisor at Politics and Prose Bookstore, and the former president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.
Instagram: @susan_keselenko_coll
Amy Fusselman
Amy Fusselman is the author of six books of fiction and nonfiction. Her latest book, Cloud Six, is a comic novel about an unfortunate couple navigating the lowest tier of heaven. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and many other outlets. She lives with her family in New York City.
Sydney Rende
Sydney Rende is the author of the short story collection, I Could Be Famous. A reality TV enthusiast since that fateful night in 2007 when LC called Spencer Pratt a Sucky Person, she will challenge anyone who argues that reality TV isn’t high art. A writer and editor from Baltimore, Maryland, her work has been deemed a “terrific debut” by George Saunders: “Eleven fast, sharp, funny stories laced with a deep understanding of the corrosive effect our fame-hungry attention economy has on real connection between people. Rende is such a witty, engaging writer, with an intuitive understanding that the short story is in the world to delight, engage, and enlarge the reader.” Her work can be found at the New York Times Style Magazine, Carve Magazine, Joyland, and elsewhere.
Instagram: @sydneyrende
Betsy Boyd
Betsy Boyd’s fiction has been published in Kenyon Review, American Short Fiction, Five Points, StoryQuarterly, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. Her short story “Scarecrow” received a Pushcart Prize. Betsy directs the Creative Writing and Publishing Arts MFA program at the University of Baltimore and is the recipient of two Maryland State Arts Council awards, an Elliot Coleman Writing Fellowship, a James A. Michener Fellowship, and residencies through Fundación Valparaíso, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Alfred and Trafford Klots International Program for Artists, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.
