News (1995-2001)

Thanks to Stuart Harrington from t-melt for sending me this link to Paul Auster's recent recollections of travelling on the subway which was featured in New York Times' magazine. He has also kindly supplied me with 2 photos of Auster at the recent reading of 'True Tales of American Life' in London in December.

Thanks to Fernando Galiza and Luciano for the following piece of information: on Tuesday 11th December 2001 Paul Auster was in Santiago de Compostela, (Galician capital city), to pick up the Arcebispo Juan de Clemente prize for "Timbuktu", 1999 best foreign language novel.

Neil Porter, (editor in charge of an English language edition of Moon Palace), has written to say: "You might be interested to know that in February and March an American Drama Group (www.americandramagroup.com) will be touring Southern Germany with a dramatic adaptation of Moon Palace for schools. We are all wondering how they have adapted it!"

Future News:

Performances of "Hide and Seek" A multi-discipline performance for 2 singers (Susi Hyldgaard and Per Jørgensen), 2 dancers (Victoria May/Tina Højlund and Tim Le Roux) and 2 actors (Charlotte Munksgaard and Pauli Ryberg), with music by Michael Mantler, based on the play by Paul Auster. To be directed and created by Rolf Heim (who previously worked with Mantler on "The School of Understanding" productions) in co-operation with choreographer Tim Feldmann and scenographer Sisse Jørgensen. Premiere and performances at Kanonhallen in Copenhagen, Denmark (January 29 - February 16, 2002), to be followed by performances at the Hebbel Theater in Berlin, Germany (March 1-3, 2002).

On Tuesday 26th February 2002 at 5:45pm there will be a reading and conversation with Paul Auster at theBaruch College Conference Center (part of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Series).

Luciano e-mailed me with this update about Paul Auster's visit to Argentina in April 2002: "Hello Stuart: I was informed that Paul Auster will visit my country next april. The purpose of his presentation will be to open the most important event regarding books in Buenos Aires. He had also requested a meeting with the Argentine judge community, the second most important community in America. I feel very exciting about that. Well, see you. Luciano"

Many thanks to Stuart Poole for this e-mail: "Just seen on the Amazon UK website that The Book of Illusions * has a publication date of 7th October 2002. That's all it says at the moment. In my experience these dates are usually right though."

* The Book of Illusions is going to be Paul Auster's next novel.

Old News:

Thanks to Peter Coady for the following information: Paul Auster is about to do a reading for 'I Thought My Father Was God' at Foyles bookshop, (in the UK the book is called 'True Tales of American Life'): "On Thursday 6 December, American novelist Paul Auster (The New York Trilogy, The Music of Chance, Leviathan) honours Foyles with his only UK reading from True Tales of American Life (Faber, £16.99, published 3 December) - described by Publishers Weekly as “Finally, a bathroom book worth of Pulitzer consideration" TICKETS for the Paul Auster reading, price £3 each (with a £2 discount off the authors’ books when purchased at the events) can be reserved by phoning Mary Spoerry on 020 7440 1553 or by e-mail

MS Fogg kindly e-mailed me this week to say that the following article by Paul Auster was in the German newspaper Die Ziet on Thursday 15th November 2001: it's entitled Underground.

Schedule of Appearances by Paul Auster and NPR's Jacki Lyden:

Washington, D.C.
Monday 22nd October 2001
The Folger Shakespeare Library
A PEN/Faulkner Event
8:00-9:15 PM (Use the entrance closer to the U.S. Capitol building.) This is a free, but ticketed event. To reserve tickets, call the box office at (202) 544-7077, or buy tickets online through the Folger box office. Readings by three story contributors: David Anderson, A Failed Execution, Bill Helmantoler The Last Hand, and Jim Furlong, Riding with Andy.

Chicago
Thursday 25th October 2001
7:30-9 PM, Symphony Center, Buntrock Hall, 220 S. Michigan
Symphony Center Event, sponsored by The Great Books Foundation. Readings by story contributors: Freddie Levin, Why I am Antifur, Eric Wynn, Pork Chop, Ludlow Perry, My Mistake, and Joan Vanden Heuvel, Sophisticated Lady. To order tickets call 1.800.222.5870, ext. 355, or visit the Web site at www.greatbooks.org. This is a free, but ticketed, event.

New York
Wednesday 7th November 2001
7:00-8:15 PM, The New School, Tischman Auditorium (ground floor 66 West 12th St. (between Fifth and Sixth Aves.) Readings by story contributors: Mary Grace Dembeck, Act of Memory; Juliana Nash, Snow; Sandra Waller, Early Arithmetic; Reginald Thayer, Celebration; and Joel Einschlag, Dead Man’s Bluff. Tickets are $5.00. Call the box office at (800) 709-4321.

Thanks to John Brawley, (author of the moving story 'A Conversation With Bill' in 'I Thought My Father Was God'), for this information.

On Saturday 13th October 2001 Paul Auster took part in 'Readings In Contemporary Poetry' at 548 West 22nd Street, NYC at 4:00pm

Since the tragic events that took place in New York on Tuesday 11th September 2001 Paul Auster has made several appearances on French and German TV as well as Radio Canada. He also wrote a small essay on the attack for the German newspaper Die Zeit. Here is my rough translation. As well as writing a piece for La Presse. I've done a rough translation of that piece here.

Pierre Fortin writes: "Paul Auster was on "SRC" French-Canadian television tonight (09-19-01), in Montreal. He gave a very touching account of his reactions to the events in New York City, on September 11, 2001. His daughter, Sophie, was going to High School (for the first time) on her own, that day, and had to cope with the horror that New Yorkers shared. He couldn't write anything during the following days and is still appalled...Take care, Paul! We all love you! Pierre."

	I Thought My Father Was God was first released in countries like France and from September 2001 has been on general release in the US and the UK. [Thanks to Klaus Nolting I now have it on good authority that "the german translation of "i thought my father was god" is out now. It's called "Ich glaubte, mein Vater sei Gott" and is, as usually, published by Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg]. "I Thought My Father Was God gathers 180 of these personal, true-life accounts in a single, powerful volume. They come from men and women of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life; together the contributors represent forty-two states. Most of the stories are short, vivid bits of narrative, combining the ordinary and the extraordinary, and most describe a single incident in the writer's life. Some are funny, like the story of how a Ku Klux Klan member's beloved dog rushed out into the street during the annual KKK parade and unmasked his owner as the whole town looked on. Some are mysterious, like the story of a woman who watched a white chicken walk purposefully down a street in Portland, Oregon, hop up some porch steps, knock on the door, and calmly enter the house." It will also be available in audio format in October 2001.
	The Story Of My Typewriter, a collaboration between Paul Auster and Sam Messer, will be widely available in November 2001. "The typewriter book is going to be excellent--a collaboration between Paul and the artist Sam Messer, who has been painting portraits of Paul's typewriters for a while (not to mention Paul himself), and who made a little bronze limited edition sculpture of one of them." Nelly Reifler
	Grapeshot Records has released Experiments in Truth featuring Paul Auster reading excerpts from his short stories: Red Notebook, Why Write? White Spaces, and Auggie Wren's Christmas Story along with some never before heard material.
	In March 2001 ECM Records released an album by Mantler Music with words by Paul Auster called 'Hide And Seek'. "It's a musical interpretation of someone's words, truncated, molded into something else, a personal re-working of the material (this time with Auster's approval by the way, since a personal contact could exist in this case - unlike with some of my past sources for words - Beckett, Meister, Soupault, Ungaretti, etc.)" Michael Mantler
I've had word from Carsten Springer about two new publications that are now available through Peter Lang Publishing, namely A Paul Auster Source Book as of January 2001 and Crises: The Works of Paul Auster (a comprehensive study of Auster's complete oeuvre titled Crises: The Works of Paul Auster) as of June 2001. I've also had word back from Nelly Reifler, (Paul Auster's assistant and editor of 'I Thought My Father Was God'), that Paul has recently finished his next novel. It's called The Book of Illusions and is currently with his publishers in New York. His wife Siri Hustvedt has also finished her latest novel. Paul told me when I met him that the book is unlikely to be published at least for another year.

On Tuesday 2nd October 2001at 6pm Novelist Paul Auster (Timbuktu) joins Jacki Lyden, host of NPR's "Weekend All Things Considered" for a reading and discussion of stories from I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project at the Sackler Museum in Boston. Auster and Lyden will be joined by local contributors to the project, whose true-life stories have been included in the anthology.

On Wednesday 17th October 2001 at 8pm Paul Auster will be in conversation with Jacki Lyden at the Herbst Theatre, San Francisco.

There was an hour length programme on Paul Auster on Bravo TV at 11am June 7th 2001.

May 11th 2001 saw an article in The Times regarding Paul Auster's decision to remove his name and his wife's name from the film 'Center of the World'. "The novelist Paul Auster, who shared credits with Wang on both Smoke and Blue in the Face, removed his name after the director diverted from his original script. His co-writer wife, Siri Hustvedt, followed suit. Now the screenplay bears the alias “Ellen Benjamin Wong” — the combined middle names of Hustvedt, Auster and Wang.According to Wang, Auster’s objection sprang from “a misreading of my intent” to make a semi-improvised, more “organic” film. “I said I couldn’t shoot it word for word, and that’s where the disagreement came in,” Wang explains. Has the rift with Auster healed? “It needs a little time,” Wang laughs."

I've had word from Paul Auster's assistant about his next publication:

"The next big event on the horizon is the release of I Thought My Father Was God, an anthology of the 180 best stories submitted to the radio program that Paul did, the National Story Project. I'm not sure when it's coming out in the UK. It'll be hitting bookstores in the US in September 2001. It's a great big wonderful book." And apparently the book, according to Auster's french publishers is to be published in France before the States.

MS Fogg has kindly informed me that there is a fantastic new resource book out on Paul Auster by Carsten Springer (better known for his useful list of interviews on the web). Here are the details if you wish to purchase it: Springer, Carsten. A Paul Auster Sourcebook. Frankfurt/M.; Berlin et al.: Peter Lang, 2001.

It looks like Paul Auster's new novel Dream Days in Hotel may have been published (Publisher: Viking Penguin - Release Date: 12th January 1999 - Available formats: Paperback - Trade Paper (ISBN: 0670852104) ). I'm trying to find out more details...this may be a wild goose chase?

In fact I have been kindly informed by Karine Reignier from Bol in France recently that Paul Auster's "french editor also told me [Karine] about a "real" novel Paul Auster has been working on for a while now - it should be finished before the end of this year." So together with Brian McGuirk's e-mail which says "I saw on your news page that you have Dream Days Hotel as maybe being released in 1999. I don't think this is the case. I have seen a few other websites with that info as well (Barnes & Nobel.com) but I can say with 95% certainty that it was not released then, at least in the US. I know it was stated to be released then because I was anxiously awaiting it, but I have a feeling it's still an ongoing project. I have read articles that have said Willy and Mr. Bones from Timbuktu were originally characters from Dream Days, but that's the only official confirmation I've ever heard about it." it pretty much looks like the end of 2001 is going to be the finish date."

In March 2001 ECM Records released an album by Mantler Music with words by Paul Auster called 'Hide And Seek'.

The fim The Center Of The World is finished and was released in the US on 20th April 2001.

'He is developing his third feature, an adaptation of the novel The Locked Room, part of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy. But will it turn into Nebraska Trilogy in Payne's hands? "It will mostly be New York," he says, without a flicker of a smile. "But it will shoot about a week in Omaha."'

About Alexander Payne (director of Election)

Paul Auster's next novel will be out this year or next and will be called 'Dream Days Hotel'.

Paul Auster is currently in discussions with Philip Haas ref: turning Mr Vertigo into a movie.

Two of Paul Auster's novels are currently in pre-production Leviathan and The Locked Room (the third part of The New York Trilogy). Apparently, Jon Amiel, of Singing Detective fame, is now working on a version of The Locked Room, the third of the trilogy.

During December 2000 Timbuktu was discussed by Guardian Books Unlimited.

From November 2000 onwards the National Story Project started to have listeners' real-life stories read out by Paul Auster on a more frequent basis than merely once a month.

On Thursday 9th November 2000 Paul Auster's wife Siri Hustvedt spoke at the MIT building in Massachusetts, USA.

February 26th - 28th 2000 saw a Paul Auster season on Film Four.

On Tuesday 28th October 2000 the Arches Theatre Company performed 'The Book Room' - a surreal and black tale 'inspired by cult American author Paul Auster'.

On June 6th 1999 Paul Auster was declared recipient of the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Between May 28th to June 6th 1999 Paul Auster visited the Hay on Wye Book Festival to talk about his work.

Paul Auster's televised interview with Melvyn Bragg was shown on ABC in Australia on 23rd May 1999.

In 1999 the 52 minute documentary Paul Auster Confidential was shown in France.

Paul Auster has written a letter of support to Curtis White ref: Fiction Collective 2.

Paul Auster served as a member of the jury of the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.

Paul Auster was the 1995-1996 recipient of the John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence.