For those who do not earn their livelihood through writing, it is difficult to convey just how hard it is to stay financially afloat. Paychecks often arrive weeks after an assignment has been turned in and weeks after your creditors hector you for the cash. Sometimes a writer must wait many months even when expecting a check from a prestigious outlet. Even when a writer has received some attention, there are often those times in which he must scrounge under the couch for change or ask his family and friends for help.
Such a life is already fraught with difficulties, but writers stubbornly stick it out. But imagine that you have a family. And imagine that you have been hit hard by that very special avarice that only a HMO knows.
With this in mind, I direct your attention to The World’s Most Literary Rent Party Ever.
I have learned that Charles Bock, author of Beautiful Children, and his family are now facing serious hardship. Bock’s wife, Diana, is now in the hospital with leukemia. They have a two year old daughter. The costs — physical, emotional, and financial — are quite high. Difficult even for a writer who has experienced some success.
In an effort to help the Bock Family out, the literary community has come together for a special benefit that is set to go down on Sunday, February 6, 2011. At PS 122 in the East Village. Tickets are set to go on sale on January 10th.
If you don’t have the green to attend this gala, you can show your support through a PayPal donation. Please spread word around.
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (
Bravo.
Wow. Or really, OMFG. Wow. I’m considering buying a plane ticket to come to this from Chicago, if nothing else, I’ll donate. Man. That IS quite possibly the world’s most literary rent party. Are all of these authors reading or just hanging out?
I’m so sorry Charles and his family are going through this, and wish his wife a speedy recovery. Charles is such a generous and thoughtful person. He donated boxes of his novel for Operation Warrior Library after he read about our organization sending new books to soldiers, signing each copy to make it special for its recipient. Will you be selling tickets here?
Blood cancer’s a terrible disease indeed. I lost my dear friend sculptor Alan Glovsky to it years ago. I pray the Bocks have good a process in their medical odyssey and, most of all, good outcomes.
If they have a deejay at Public School 122, I hope they’ll play at least one super sexy slow tune, Edward. Maybe “Operation Trojan Horse” by Avoiding Condom Nation? You and Sarah should check it out if you’re not already grooving to it. I love their other hits as well: “Who’s Recuperating Who?” and “Dammit, Publicists Do Too Earn Their Salt”.
What is the PayPal email address where we can send donations? There was a link to it on another site, but the link didn’t work. I’d like to make a small donation.
The party website — http://www.most-literary-rent-party-ever.info — has a link on the flier that can take you to the paypal site.
As for the evening, there will be a few short readings, I understand, along with live music from Wesley Stace and his band, magic tricks and balloons, speed dating with famous writer-types, yummy baked goodies, and enough alcohol to submerge the east village.
People are also trying to put together a silent auction, but that part may not take place during the evening.
Thank you, helpful person! I succeeded in making a donation, thanks to your link.