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Connect with Andri Snær Mangnason — celebrated and award winning Icelandic author of novels such as LoveStar and The Story of the Blue Planet —at House of SpeakEasy at The Public Theatre: where authors and their audiences come together in innovative and sustaining ways. Andri will be celebrating the release of The Casket of Time, winner of both The Icelandic Literary Prize for Children and Young People’s Books and The Icelandic Booksellers Prize for Best Teenage Book of the Year, already published in over 10 languages. 

April 16: The Strength of Ignorance

Ross Gay, Poet 
Andri Snær Magnason, Novelist 
Max Boot, Military Historian
Vicky Ward, Journalist

Max Boot is a historian, best-selling author, columnist, and national-security analyst who has been called one of the “world’s leading authorities on armed conflict” by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a columnist for the Washington Post, a Global Affairs Analyst for CNN, and author of the books The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power, War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today, the New York Times best-seller Invisible Armies: The Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present, and his most recent book The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right.

Ross Gay is the author of three books: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Catalog was also a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Poetry, the Ohioana Book Award, the Balcones Poetry Prize, the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, and it was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.  

Andri Snær Magnason is an Icelandic writer of novels, poetry, plays, short stories, essays and films. His novel LoveStar got a Philip K. Dick Special Citation, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire in France, and “Novel of the year” in Iceland. The Story of the Blue Planet was the first children’s book to receive the Icelandic Literary Award and has been published or performed in 35 countries. He co-directed “Dreamland,” a feature-length documentary film based on his book, Dreamland: A Self Help Manual for a Frightened Nation. His most recent book, The Casket of Time, has now been published in about 10 languages.

Vicky Ward is a New York Times Bestselling author, investigative reporter, and author. A former contributor to Esquire and contributing editor to Vanity Fair, Ward is currently the editor at large of HuffPost and HuffPost’s long-form magazine, Highline, and Town & Country magazine. Ward is the author of two best-selling books, The Liar’s Ball: The Extraordinary Saga of How one Building Broke the World’s Toughest Tycoons and The Devil’s Casino: Friendship, Betrayal and the High Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers, and her new book, Kushner, Inc.

Seriously Entertaining, New York’s premier literary cabaret series showcasing writers and their passions, is an intellectual roller-coaster of a show. The Wall Street Journal calls it “Think-y entertainment for New York’s book-loving crowd,” The New York Times says it’s “a literary mixtape [with] perfect flow and variety,” and CBS Local News adds: “You have never seen a cabaret quite like this…. The lineup includes some of the most brilliant minds in the literary and artistic worlds.”  

Seriously Entertaining packs a big punch, regularly hosting talent such as Margo Jefferson, Amber Tamblyn, John Guare, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, PJ O'Rourke, Graham Moore, Steven Pinker, Emma Sky, and Irvine Welsh.  The show asks each writer to riff on a given theme for fifteen minutes only. Whether the result leaves you howling with laughter or sorrow, it will be an evening you’re sure to remember.

Seriously Entertaining is the flagship show of House of SpeakEasy, a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to connecting writers and audiences in innovative and sustaining ways – in classrooms through our SpeakTogether writing workshops, in the community with our book truck, and at Joe’s Pub.  

For more information please visit www.houseofspeakeasy.org @speakeasy_house  #seriouslyentertaining

Andri Snær Magnason is an Icelandic writer, born in Reykjavik on the 14th of July 1973. Andri has written novels, poetry, plays, short stories, essays and films. He studied Icelandic literature at the University of Iceland. His novel LoveStar got a Philip K. Dick Special Citation, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire in France, and “Novel of The Year” in Iceland. The Story of the Blue Planet was the first children’s book to receive the Icelandic Literary Award and has been published or performed in 35 countries. The Story of the Blue Planet received the Janusz Korczak Honorary Award in Poland 2000. Andri has collaborated with various artists. He has been active in the fight for preserving the nature of Iceland. His book Dreamland: A Self Help Manual for a Frightened Nation takes on these issues and has sold more than 20,000 copies in Iceland. He co directed Dreamland, a feature-length documentary film based on the book. Footage from an interview with Andri can be seen in the Oscar Award winning documentary Inside Job by Charles Ferguson. His most recent book, The Casket of Time, has now been published in about 10 languages and was nominated as the best fantasy book in Finland in 2016, along with books by Ursula K. le Guin and David Mitchell. Andri Snær lives in Reykjavík with his wife Margrét, and four children.

Where: House of SpeakEasy at The Public Theatre

When: April 16, 2019