Ever wondered what it is about Brooklyn that spawns so many talented authors or entices scribes to come from far and wide to set up their homes here?
Sheepshead Bay native Bill Goldstein, a New York Times books editor, promises to get to the bottom of that question with his star-studded panel discussion, “Literary Brooklyn,” to be held on Saturday in Manhattan.
The literati who will be mulling over the attraction the borough holds for them include Paul Auster (“The Brooklyn Follies,” “The New York Trilogy”), Rick Moody (“Demonology,” “The Ice Storm”) and Nicole Krauss (pictured), author of “The History of Love.”
“I’ll be asking them if there is something unique about Brooklyn that these writers are particularly inspired by —Â as a place that they live or as a place of the imagination,” Goldstein told GO Brooklyn. “How does it work for them?
“When I’m in Brooklyn, and I’m there frequently to visit my mother, I’m struck time and time again by how beautiful and how filled with varieties of people Brooklyn is,” mused Goldstein. “I think it affects the literary imagination just as it affects filmmakers.”
Goldstein believes that Brooklyn has “an amazing bank of perspective” that isn’t prevalent on the other side of the East River.
“What’s exciting to me is that you have Paul Auster, who is adamantly situated himself in Brooklyn,” said Goldstein. “He walks through Brooklyn streets to get to his office —Â at least he used to. You get a different feel of life in Brooklyn.
“So many people talk about Brooklyn as a place attendant on Manhattan, like it’s a suburb of Manhattan. What I hope to do in the panel is to look at Brooklyn as its own place, not a satellite.”
“Literary Brooklyn,” a panel discussion with authors Paul Auster, Nicole Krauss and Bill Moody, moderated by Bill Goldstein, will take place on Jan. 12 at noon at The TimesCenter (The New York Times Building, 41st Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues in Manhattan). Tickets are $25. For more information, visit www.artsandleisureweek.com.
