TEXAS PERFORMING ARTS
PRESENTS

AN EVENING WITH AWARD-WINNING NOVELIST
JONATHAN FRANZEN
IN CONVERSATION WITH LEV GROSSMAN

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2011, 8:00 P.M.
AT BASS CONCERT HALL

PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
THE TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL

“A masterpiece of American fiction. Once again Franzen has fashioned a capacious but intricately ordered narrative that in its majestic sweep seems to gather up every fresh datum of our shared millennial life.” – The New York Times book review, on Freedom

Texas Performing Arts presents an evening with award-winning novelist Jonathan Franzen, Friday, October 14 at Bass Concert Hall. Touring on the heels of his 2010 best-seller Freedom, this lively evening of conversation will be led by Time Magazine senior writer and book critic, Lev Grossman.

Franzen is the author of the 2001 international best-selling novel The Corrections. With translations in 35 languages, American hardcover sales of nearly one million copies and nominations for nearly every major book prize in the country, Franzen was awarded the National Book Award for this novel.

Franzen’s most recent novel is Freedom. In August 2010, he was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine — only the second time in the last decade that a living writer has been on the cover of this national magazine. Writing in the New York Times Book Review, the review’s editor, Sam Tanenhaus, declared Franzen’s Freedom, “a masterpiece of American fiction,” and the book debuted at # 1 on the Times bestseller list. In September Freedom was chosen as Oprah’s 64th Book Club pick. Freedom won the 2011 John Gardner Prize for fiction and the Heartland Prize. It was also chosen as one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2010 and as a finalist for National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Franzen’s other books include The Twenty-Seventh City, Strong Motion, How to Be Alone, and The Discomfort Zone.

Lev Grossman is a senior writer at Time Magazine and the author of the bestselling novel The Magicians and its sequel The Magician King. At Time Grossman serves as both book critic and lead technology writer. The New York Times called him “one of this country’s smartest and most reliable critics.” His journalism has also appeared in the Times, the Village Voice, Entertainment Weekly, Salon, Lingua Franca and The Wall Street Journal, among many others, and he appears as a frequent guest on National Public Radio.

Grossman’s first novel, Warp, was published in 1998; his second, Codex, appeared in 2004 and became an international bestseller. The Magicians, his third, earned a rare combination of popular and critical acclaim — it debuted at #8 on the New York Times bestseller list and was one of the New Yorker’s best books of 2009. His fourth book The Magician King picks up where The Magicians left off, and was named one of Amazon’s Top Ten Books of the Fall for 2011.

For more information on this engagement, please visit texasperformingarts.org/season/franzen.

CALENDAR LISTING
Friday, October 14, 2011, 8:00 pm –Texas Performing Arts presents Jonathan Franzen in conversation with Lev Grossman at Bass Concert Hall (E. 23rd St. and Robert Dedman Dr.) A map of the campus: texasperformingarts.org/visit/maps_directions. Tickets ($34 – $38 / Limited $10 student tickets / discounted tickets available for UT faculty & staff, seniors and Military) are on sale now at authorized ticket outlets, which include the Bass Concert Hall Box Office, most H-E-B stores and all Texas Box Office outlets, online at TexasPerformingArts.org, or by calling (512) 477-6060 or (800) 982-BEVO.

PRESS CONTACT:
Gene Bartholomew; 512.471.0632
gbartholomew@TexasPerformingArts.org