Authors Ann Beattie, Richard Ford Coming to Arlington Library

Arlington Reads 2014 takes on the engrossing fiction of a complicated generation with “Dazed and Confused: Two Great Writers on Boomer Angst,” featuring, in person, Ann Beattie and Richard Ford.

Beattie's appearance is set for Thursday, April 10 at 7 p.m. Ford will be coming to town April 24 for a 7 p.m. appearance. Both appearances are at the Arlington Public Library's Central Library.

Noted for an economy of words and a keen realism, Beattie and Ford explore seemingly unremarkable situations with characters who share an underlying ambivalence about commitments, careers, relationships and themselves. Irony and disappointment may never be far off, but the storytelling is always compassionate, always intelligent, always inspiring.

Beattie’s Arlington Reads featured title, “The New Yorker Stories,” collects legendary works from the previous four decades for which she won the PEN/Malamud Award for achievement in the short story form and the Rea Award for the Short Story.

Beattie "a national treasure"

The New York Times Book Review calls Beattie “a national treasure, the author of short stories that will endure and continue to inspire.” She will be on stage for a conversation with Library Director Diane Kresh at Arlington Central Library Auditorium at 7 p.m. on April 10.

Arlington's Central Library is located at 1015 North Quincy St. It is easily accessible by public transportation, including Metro’s Orange Line, a short distance from both the Virginia Square and Ballston stations.

Ford has published seven novels and four collections of stories.

His “Independence Day” was the first book ever awarded both the Pulitzer Prize and the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction. His Arlington Reads featured title, “The Sportswriter,” established and shared with “Independence Day” the yearning, anguished “everyman” character Frank Bascombe for an eventual trilogy.

Time named “The Sportswriter” one of the 100 best novels published since the magazine’s founding. 

Ford will be interviewed at Central Library Auditorium by Jeffrey Brown of the “PBS NewsHour” at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 24.

Arlington Reads is Arlington Public Library’s annual one-theme, one-community reading initiative.

All events are free. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.

Books by the authors will be available for purchase and signing at each event, courtesy of Barnes & Noble, Clarendon.

Arlington Reads is made possible through the generous support of the Friends of the Arlington Public Library.

For more information, visit the Library website, or call 703-228-6321.