The Performances

Home Cooking: Short Stories and Essays of Laurie Colwin
SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2004
8 P.M.
St. Andrew's Church, 163 Main Street in New Paltz
Admission $7
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Colwin, who died unexpectedly and tragically in 1992 at the age of 48, authored several novels and collections of short stories, as well as countless essays in her regular food column in Gourmet magazine. She amassed a large following for her warm tales of love, family and food, and was honored with an O. Henry Award for her short story collection The Lone Pilgrim, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1987. She attended Columbia University before embarking on a career in publishing in 1965, and served on the editorial staffs of several leading publishers, including Putnam, Viking Press, Pantheon Books and E.P. Dutton. In 1969 she sold her first story to The New Yorker, and published her first novel, Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object, in 1975. In 1977 she left publishing to devote herself completely to her writing.

Food was central to Colwin’s life and career. She cooked for anti-war protesters during the 1968 campus uprisings at Columbia, and later volunteered at the Olivieri Center for Homeless Women. For many, her regular column in Gourmet magazine was the beginning of their lifelong friendship with this warm, unpretentious writer.

The readings chosen for this evening highlight Colwin’s love of cuisine in vignettes like “Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant,” “Repulsive Dinners: A Memoir,” and “The Glory of Chutney,” while her talents for writing fiction will be featured through the short stories “The Lone Pilgrim” and “Intimacy.” Readers are Ruth Berg, Christine Crawfis, Ann Duthers and Rosemarie Navarro.