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Literacy Partners
Food for Thought Luncheon |
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Elizabeth Strout.
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On March 23, 2010, Literacy Partners, New York’s only accredited adult literacy program, hosted the last of three “Food for Thought” luncheon events, featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout and wowOwow.com CEO Joni Evans. Thanks to the generous support of New York benefactors and de Grisogono Boutique, the event was a resounding success.
wowOwow.com CEO and founding member Joni Evans kicked off the event by emphasizing how important Literacy Partners efforts are in the New York City area. A longtime friend and colleague of Liz Smith, honorary chair of Literacy Partners, Evans introduced Elizabeth Strout by describing her amazing literary talent. Strout, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge, Abide with Me and Amy and Isabelle, began by sharing a childhood memory:
“I was really young, but I remember this moment vividly. We were on vacation and lost somewhere in Florida, when my father asked us to read the street signs to look for a particular road,” Strout recalled. “I remember being horrified when I realized that I couldn’t read the signs. There was this whole world out there and it wasn’t open to me. I said, ‘Dad, I can’t read!;’ and he promised to teach me when we got home. But that moment really stuck with me. And thinking back on it, it makes me so grateful for Literacy Partners work, teaching adult New Yorkers how to read.”
Strout went on to discuss the importance of “escaping” into fiction – and being able to have a character’s feelings resonate with and reflect one’s own. After her talk, she and Evans sat down for a lively and enlightening exchange on Strout’s journey as a writer and her latest, award-winning book.
When asked about how she came to be published, Strout described the difficult process of trying to get an agent, which took years of hard work and follow-up. Strout joked that when people called her an “overnight success,” that really wasn’t the case at all. When asked if she missed Olive, the protagonist in Olive Kitteridge, Strout joked that Olive still “haunts her” sometimes, but has for the most part departed.
The event was attended by Literacy Partners chairman Peter Brown, and Board members Jacqueline Weld Drake, Katharine Raymond, and Mark Jackson. Janet Barrett, Violaine Bernbach, Hilary Black, Martha Bograd, Caroline Curry, Elizabeth Curry, Mary Alice Deering, Lorna de Wangen Graev, Fred Eberstadt, Anne Eisenhower Flottl, Barett Frelinghuysen, Jamee Gregory, Les Hinton, Amy Holman, Susan Kamil, Peggy Culver Obernauer, Liz Peek, , Jana Roberts, Denise Saul, Miriam Schatz, Terry Shea and Ann Widerka were also in attendance.
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Susan Kamil, Hilary Black and Joni Evans.
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Carol Jackson and Literacy Partners chairman Peter Brown.
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Literacy Partners executive director Susan McLean, Mark Jackson and Katharine Raymond.
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Anne Eisenhower Flottl, Jackie Weld Drake and Fred Eberstadt.
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Sue Ellen Paroff, Lekha Rao and Barbara Stoller.
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Joan Marlow Golan and Fran Manushkin.
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Kerith Aronow and Susan Whoriskey.
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Patti Harris, Barbara Harris and Leila Straus.
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Allison Carey, Elizabeth Kamimer, Susan Ciaccio.
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Susan McLean, Erin Gray.
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Katharine Raymond and Les Hinton.
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| Photos: Martin Bentsen/MJB Home Entertainment |
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