Tuesday, November 10, 2015

The Reading

On Tuesday, November 10, 2015, we launched #YeahYouWrite in the dreamy Garden District lounge at Bo’s Kitchen & Bar Room. Téa Obreht (winner of the Orange Prize for The Tiger’s Wife), David Ebershoff (author of The Danish Girl–film starring Eddie Redmayne), and Dan Sheehan (author of Restless Souls) read to our modest audience and sipped the first three custom #LiteraryCocktails ever designed for #YeahYouWrite. They patiently waited for the end of the event to eat dinner, prompting Robin and Lisa to serve dinner during the readings from then on. That first quiet night, with Robin behind her camera and Lisa (a bit nervous) behind the mic, led to dozens more evenings, hundreds of authors (and their requisite #LiteraryCocktails/Mocktails), and oftentimes standing-room-only crowds. We’re forever indebted to Téa, David, and Dan for supporting us when we were new.

#LiteraryCocktails
by Diego

• Pink Tiger for Téa Obreht & The Tiger’s Wife: There’s plenty of the plum brandy rajika sipped in Téa’s novel. We scoured New York City for the perfect (only?) bottle of the Serbian spirit to add authenticity to this #LiteraryCocktail.
• Lili for David Ebershoff & The Danish Girl: This #LiteraryCocktail—with its base of the Danish spirit akvavit and its light and delicately bubbly style, served in the most feminine of glasses, the coupe—recalls the spirit of the lovely, hopeful Lili.
• Best Mate for Dan Sheehan & Restless Souls: What do you serve an Irishman who writes about Ireland and the Irish, and who reads from his debut novel about a trio of road-tripping Irish friends? Jameson’s of course—but not just any Jameson’s…Caskmates, served neat, mate.

Open Mic Readers:

Tina Wald came all the way from Chicago to read from her book, The Railroad Man: The Legend of Lil’ Jay. Later she wowed us with a light show.

Karen Dionne read from the draft of The Marsh King’s Daughter, which was eventually published in 27 languages and is now a major motion picture (11/2023). 

Rapid-Fire Q&A