AUTHOR PANEL: "Goodbye To All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York" hosted by Sari Botton

This event will be held at Oblong Books & Music, 6422 Montgomery St., Rhinebeck, NY.

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In 1967, Joan Didion wrote an essay called Goodbye to All That, a work of such candid and penetrating prose that it soon became the gold standard for personal essays. Like no other story before it, Didion’s tale of loving and leaving New York captured the mesmerizing allure Manhattan has always had for writers, poets, and wandering spirits.

In this captivating collection, put together & edited by Sari Botton, 28 writers take up Didion’s literary legacy by sharing their own New York stories. Their essays often begin as love stories do, with the passion of something newly discovered—the crush of subway crowds, the streets filled with manic energy, and the sudden, unblinking certainty that this is the only place on Earth where one can become exactly who she is meant to be. They also share the grief that comes like a gut-punch, when the metropolis loses its magic and the pressures of New York’s frenetic life wear thin on even the most fervent dwellers. The anthology features the work of writers Chloe Caldwell, Maggie Estep, Dana Kinstler, Cheryl Strayed, Dani Shapiro, Emma Straub, Ann Hood, and more, including a story from Botton herself.

Joining Sari at Oblong this evening will be contributing authors Chloe Caldwell, Maggie Estep, and Dana Kinstler (see Dana's bio attached below).

Sari Botton is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, The Sun, The Village Voice, Harper's Bazaar, More, Marie Claire, WWD, W, The Rumpus, Memoirville, This Recording, xoJane.com, assorted anthologies, and other publications. Sari is the editorial director of the TMI Project, a non-profit organization that holds true storytelling workshops in jails, shelters, veterans' hospitals, schools, and other places where people don't usually get to tell their stories or be heard.