WESTPORT, Connecticut — Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo, the critically revered and publicly adored author of Nobody’s Fool, Empire Falls, Bridge of Sighs, and additional award-winning best-sellers, will be making a special appearance at The Westport Library on Monday, June 2, at 7 pm to discuss his newest book of essays, Life and Art.
Russo will be in conversation with Suzanne Leopold, the creator of SuzyApproved.com, a platform for Leopold’s book reviews, and SuzyApprovedBookTours.com, where she aggregates her community of bloggers across social media platforms to support authors with book launches.
Tickets for Russo’s appearance are $28 and include a copy of Life and Art. Click here to buy tickets; you can purchase either one or two seats plus a copy of Life and Art for the $28 cost.
Russo is the author of nine novels, most recently Somebody's Fool, Chances Are…, Everybody’s Fool, and That Old Cape Magic. He has also written two collections of short stories and a memoir, Elsewhere. He is perhaps best known for his trilogy of novels set in the fictional town of North Bath:Nobody’s Fool (1993), Everybody’s Fool (2016), and Somebody’s Fool (2023). Nobody’s Fool was made into a film starring Westport’s own Paul Newman along with Buce Willis, Jessica Tandy, and Melody Griffith.
“Nobody does small-town life better than Richard Russo,” said The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a review, with The New York Times Book Review noting that “Russo is one of the best novelists around.”
In 2002, Russo received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, which, like Nobody’s Fool, won multiple awards for its screen adaptation. And in 2023 his novel Straight Man was adapted into the television series Lucky Hank starring Bob Odenkirk. Russo also received France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine in 2017.
Said the Pulitzer committee in recognizing the author: “Richard Russo … has demonstrated a peerless affinity for the human tragicomedy, and with this stunning new novel he extends even further his claims on the small-town, blue-collar heart of the country.”
Life and Art is a collection of 12 essays that reflect on life, art, how they inform each other, and how the stories we tell ourselves about both shape our understanding of the world around us. In “The Lives of Others,” he considers the fact that writers use people, insisting that what matters, in the end, is how and for what purpose. In “Stiff Neck,” he writes of the fault lines exposed within his own family as his wife’s sister and her husband develop COVID. In “Triage,” he details the terror of seeing his 7-year-old grandson in critical condition. And in “Ghosts,” he revisits Gloversville, the town that gave rise to the fictional North Bath of his novels, and confronts the specter of its richly populated past and its ghostly present.
Leopold is an active book reviewer and promoter of authors. SuzyApproved.com has more than 10,000 followers on Twitter, and Leopold also posts regularly to Facebook and Instagram. A 20-year Westport resident, she served as a juror for the 2024 Westport Prize for Literature.
Author Talk: Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Richard Russo on His New Essay Collection, Life and Art
Monday, June 2
7-8:30 pm
Trefz Forum, The Westport Library
About The Westport Library
Founded in 1886, built in 1908, and transformed in 2019, The Westport Library is one of the most active and innovative public libraries in the nation, devoted to enriching the intellectual and creative lives of the community. Among its many highlights are a full collection of books for children, teens, and adults; an engaging and colorful Children’s Library; a MakerSpace; a Library of Things; a Seed Library; a robust café and store; and professional art installations that rotate throughout the year. The Westport Library is also home to Verso Studios, replete with an SSL hybrid analog sound studio and broadcast control suite featuring a state-of-the-art console and six robotic cameras, and the Trefz Forum, an open, flexible space that can accommodate up to 600 patrons and features an 18-foot video wall, 35-foot stage, state-of-the-art sound, and theatrical lighting. Situated in the heart of downtown Westport overlooking the scenic Saugatuck River, The Westport Library annually hosts StoryFest, the largest literary festival in Connecticut, and VersoFest, its multi-day music and media festival. Above all, the Library strives to serve the whole community as a vibrant gathering spot where people of all ages come to seek information, gain knowledge, exchange ideas, and share experiences. For more information, visit westportlibrary.org.