Rough Draft is excited to welcome local author Abigail Thomas along with local author Sari Botton to celebrate the publication of Abigail's book, Still Life At Eighty. Come for the conversation and discussion; stay for the book signing and meet-and-greet to follow. Copies of Still Life At Eighty will be available for purchased on event night or you can buy one for pickup at Rough Draft through this link.
This event is free with food, drink, or book purchase. Seating is first-come, first-served, but RSVP's via Eventbrite are appreciated. (They help us stay in touch in case of changes, and they give us an idea of how many people to expect.). You can RSVP here.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In her new memoir, Abigail Thomas ruminates on aging during the confines of COVID-19 with her trademark mix of humor and wisdom, including valuable, contemplative writing tips along the way.
As she approaches eighty, what she herself calls old age, Abigail Thomas accepts her new life, quieter than before, no driving, no dancing, mostly sitting in her chair in a sunny corner with three dogs for company-three dogs, vivid memories, bugs and birds and critters that she watches out her window. No one but this beloved, best-selling memoirist, could make so much over what might seem so little.
Memories fall like confetti, as time contracts, shoots forward, dawdles, and there she is, back in her twenties in Washington Square Park, drinking, having sex with strangers, falling in and out of love, believing in a better world. Whole decades evaporate as she sits in her chair, and a spider takes up residence beside her, who will become her boon companion for the next week.
Sometimes dread arrives, inhabits her body like a shadow and all she can do is write it away, pay attention to what catches her eye, sticks in her brain. Whatever keeps her in the moment. Pull up a chair, have a cup of tea and enter Abigail Thomas's funny, mesmerizing, generous world.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Abigail Thomas is the daughter of renowned science writer Lewis Thomas (The Lives of a Cell), the mother of four children, the grandmother of twelve, and great-grandmother of 2. Her academic education stopped when, pregnant with her oldest daughter, she was asked to leave Bryn Mawr during her first year. She lived most of her life on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and was for a time a book editor and for another time a book agent. Then she started writing for publication. Her memoir, “A Three Dog Life,” was named one of the best books of 2006 by the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. She lives in Woodstock, New York, with her dogs.
Sari Botton is a bestselling author, editor, and teacher with decades of experience. She is the author of the memoir in essays, And You May Find Yourself…Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen-X Weirdo. She teaches creative nonfiction at Catapult, Bay Path University and Kingston Writers’ Studio. She publishes Oldster Magazine, Memoir Monday, and Adventures in Journalism. She is the Writer-in-Residence in the creative writing program at SUNY New Paltz for the spring of 2023.