Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being
in conversation with
Ellis Avery, author of The Teahouse Fire and The Last Nude
and moderated by
Sharon Marcus, Editor in Chief, Public Books
A Tale for the Time Being tells the story of a troubled Japanese schoolgirl, whose diary washes up on a desolate Canadian shoreline in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, where it is discovered by the novelist, Ruth. Translated and published in more than 35 countries, it is a sweeping tale of bullies and suicide bombers, Buddhism and cyberspace, and the love between a father, his daughter, and an ancient Zen nun.
Ruth Ozeki is a writer, filmmaker, Zen Buddhist priest, and the best-selling author of My Year of Meats, All Over Creation, and most recently A Tale for the Time Being, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Ellis Avery is the author of two award-winning novels: The Last Nude (2012) and The Teahouse Fire (2007). She teaches fiction writing at Columbia University and at home in Manhattan’s West Village.
Sharon Marcus is Orlando Harriman Professor of English at Columbia University and Editor in Chief of Public Books. She is the author of Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England and Apartment Stories: City and Home in Nineteenth-Century Paris and London. Marcus’s current work examines Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, and the 19th-century culture of theatrical celebrity.
This event is co-sponsored by Three Lives & Company, the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University, the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU, and the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU.