Past Events
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Thursday, March 23, 2017 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredThe first major book about the relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok, Eleanor and Hick offers a vivid portrait of love and a revealing look at how an unlikely romance influenced some of the consequential years in American history.
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Thursday, March 16, 2017 - 5:30 PM | Children | For members and their guests in grades 3 and older | Whitridge Room | $15 per child, payable at the door; advance registration required
Explore the art of bookmaking with Library Conservator Christina Amato. Participants will make their own unique blank books using traditional materials and techniques. Adult assistance is recommended.
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Wednesday, March 15, 2017 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredEcstatic love poems of Rumi, a poet and Sufi mystic born over eight centuries ago, are beloved by millions of readers around the world. In this breakthrough biography, Brad Gooch brilliantly brings to life the man and puts a face to the name Rumi, vividly coloring in his time and place.
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Thursday, March 9, 2017 - 6:00 PM | The Writing Life | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredLibrary members read from their own short stories, novels, poetry, criticism, memoir, and plays. Refreshments and wine will be served.
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Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - 11:00 AM | Reading Group | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | $60 for all four sessions (recommended); $15 per session | Advance registration requiredFord Madox Ford’s Parade’s End tetralogy stands as an unequaled portrayal of the convulsive effects of the First World War on modern civilization. Nicholas Birns, back by popular demand following his Elena Ferrante seminar in fall 2016, leads discussion on how the protagonist’s tangled relationships speak to its era’s evolving manners and morals, and the way Ford’s own innovative style is itself inflected by the changes it depicts.
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Monday, February 27, 2017 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredToday, “Casanova” is a synonym for “great lover,” yet the real story of this remarkable figure is little known. This witty, roisterous biography exposes his astonishing life in rich, intimate detail. At the same time, it is a dazzling portrait of eighteenth-century Europe from serving girls to kings and courtiers. Esteemed biographer Laurence Bergreen brings a sensual world vividly alive in this irresistible book.
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Wednesday, February 22, 2017 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredThe author of the century's first narrative of the entire Pacific War takes the reader into the war's heart, from mid-1942 to mid-1944, the largest, bloodiest, most costly, most technically innovative logistically complicated amphibious war in history.
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Thursday, February 16, 2017 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | Open to the Public | Members' Room | Free of charge | advance registration requiredThree acclaimed mystery writers - Lyndsay Faye, Stefanie Pintoff, and Radha Vatsal - discuss New York City as a setting for crime fiction, historical or present-day, with moderator Linda Landrigan, editor-in-chief of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. This event is co-sponsored with Mystery Writers of America New York.
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Wednesday, February 15, 2017 - 5:30 PM | Children | For members and their guests in grades 3-7 | Whitridge Room | $10 per person, payable at the door; advance registration requiredAcclaimed playwright Rob Ackerman will share the fundamental tools of great playwriting and guide participants in writing their own scenes.
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Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - 10:00 AM | The Writing Life | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | Free of charge | Advance registration requiredWalter Bode, who has spent thirty-five years in publishing, fifteen of them as a freelancer, offers suggestions, tips, cautions, and exemplary tales about choosing an editor and making the most of the experience.
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Saturday, February 11, 2017 - 3:00 PM | Children | For members and their guests age 2 and older | Whitridge Room | $5 per child, payable at the door; advance registration requiredWarm up at the Library with captivating storyteller LuAnn Adams as she brings wintry adventures and snowy animal tales to life.
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Wednesday, February 8, 2017 - 5:30 PM | Children | For members and their guests in grades 7 and older | Whitridge Room | $10 per person, payable at the door; advance registration requiredYA fantasy author Sarah Porter will guide participants in strategies for writing their own fantasy stories or novels.
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Wednesday, February 8, 2017 - 11:00 AM | Reading Group | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | $75 for all five sessions (recommended); $15 per session | Advance registration requiredConsidered one of the finest American writers, Henry James is also considered a challenging writer. This five-session seminar will survey the best of his stories and reveal his exceptional qualities as a writer.
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Tuesday, February 7, 2017 - 6:00 PM | The Writing Life | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | $60 for the series | Advance registration requiredAward-winning playwright C.S. Hanson focuses on problem, climax, and resolution in the magical ten-minute play. Participants will write, rewrite, and hear drafts read by actors, as well as learn how to market ten-minute plays for competitions and festivals.
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Monday, February 6, 2017 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredMark Rothko, world-renowned icon of Abstract Expressionism, is rediscovered in this wholly original examination of his art and life written by his son.
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Thursday, February 2, 2017 - 6:30 PM | Special Event | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredElliot Ackerman discusses with SPARTA author Roxana Robinson his new novel set on the Turkey-Syria border and exploring loss, second chances, and why we choose to believe.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - 6:00 PM | Special Event | Open to the Public | Members' Room | Refreshments at 6:00 PM; presentation at 6:30 PM | $20 per person | Advance registration requiredThe storytelling and comedy scene in New York City is a source of endless creativity. Not quite under the radar, it’s bubbling up on small storytelling stages and in feisty comedy venues, primarily located in the far reaches of Manhattan and beyond. Join us as we bring to the Members’ Room a delightful roster of storytellers and comic actors with fresh, funny observations of our life and times, including Michael Arkin, Carmen Maria Machado, Nancy McCabe Kelly, Bruce Jarchow, Dorothea Benton Frank, Matthew Mercier, and Sarah Fearon.
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Sunday, January 29, 2017 - 3:00 PM | | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $5 per person, payable at the door; advance registration required | Priority in registration is given to teens. Parental accompaniment is not required.YA Readers! Here’s an amazing opportunity to meet YA luminaries Libba Bray and David Levithan. The authors will discuss their writing—past, present, and future—with moderator Jennifer Hubert Swan and the audience. Join us for this afternoon of conversation, readings, and refreshments.
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Thursday, January 26, 2017 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $15 per person | Advance registration requiredDonna Kaz, aka Aphra Behn, shares her experiences as the Guerrilla Girl Aphra Behn, who created comedic art and theater that blasted the blatant sexism of the theater world while proving feminists are funny at the same time - all from behind a gorilla mask.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2017 - 5:30 PM | Children | Open to the Public | For grades 3 and older | $5 per person, payable at the door | advance registration requiredMeet Marcel—a French boy who loves riding his bicycle and dreams of racing in the Tour de France—as he takes a stand against injustice in his German-occupied town during World War II. Join author Yona Zeldis McDonough for this interactive event to see and hear how she came to write this suspenseful historical novel and the journey it made from inspiration to finished book.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2017 - 5:30 PM | Children | For members and their guests in grades 3-5 | Whitridge Room | $5 per child, payable at the door | advance registration requiredRead The One and Only Ivan on your own, then join a librarian for a discussion about the book, friendship, bravery, and animal rights.
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Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - 10:00 AM | The Writing Life | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | Free of charge | Advance registration requiredAuthor, editor, and teacher Lorrie Bodger investigates the short story from outlining to publication.
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Sunday, January 8, 2017 - 2:30 PM | Reading Group | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | by donation
Educator Blanche Siegal leads informal discussions of the works of the beloved Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope and selected contemporaries. This popular group is now in its sixth season. Tea and light refreshments are served.
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Tuesday, December 13, 2016 - 10:00 AM | The Writing Life | For Members Only | Whitridge Room | Free of charge; registration required
Children’s publishing is the fastest-growing niche in the publishing marketplace, increasing by more than 40% in the last decade. The largest market is books for children aged 5-8, but 80% of all Young Adult books sold are purchased by adults.
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Monday, December 12, 2016 - 6:30 PM | Lecture | Open to the Public | Members' Room | $10 with advance registration/$15 at the door
Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, who launched the restoration of Central Park in the 1980s, now introduces seven remarkable green spaces in and around New York City, giving the history—both natural and human—of how they have been transformed o
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