October 28, 2020
Writer, editor Emily Nemens to read from her work via Zoom on Friday, 3:30 p.m.
On Friday, Oct. 30, writer and editor Emily Nemens will read from her work at 3:30 p.m. via Zoom.
Nemens is the author of the novel "The Cactus League" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020) and editor of the prestigious literary quarterly The Paris Review.
Since Nemen's arrival as its seventh editor, The Paris Review has seen record-high circulation, published two anthologies, produced a second season of its podcast, and won the 2020 National Magazine Award for Fiction. Previously, Nemens co-edited The Southern Review, the literary quarterly published at Louisiana State University.
"Emily Nemens's 'The Cactus League' is a terrific first novel, one of the best of 2020," said Dan Hoyt, professor of English and creative writing. "On its surface it's about baseball, and it is indeed a novel about America's pastime and the fictional Los Angeles Lions, but it's also about lives in 21st-century America, about people hanging on, about the connections between us and the places where we live. In this book, home is a plate, of course, but it's also a state of mind, and each of the characters in this book is looking for it, for that safety, that comfort, for that place to belong."
In addition to her work as an author and editor, Nemens is also a visual artist, having received her bachelor's degree from Brown University in art history and studio art. She subsequently completed a Master of Fine Arts in fiction at Louisiana State University. As an illustrator, Nemens has published cartoons in the New Yorker and collaborated with Harvey Pekar.
For more information about Nemens's work, visit her website.
The reading is sponsored by the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences and SGA fine arts fees.