Daniel Mallory Ortberg
presents
The Merry Spinster:
Tales of Everyday Horror
in conversation with MARGARET H. WILLISON
We hope to reschedule
DateMar
23
Friday
March 23, 2018 7:00 PM ET |
LocationHarvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138 |
Tickets
This event is free; no tickets are required.
|
Harvard Book Store welcomes DANIEL MALLORY ORTBERG, co-founder of The Toast and author of Texts from Jane Eyre, for a discussion of his latest book, The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror. He will be joined in conversation by librarian and podcaster MARGARET H. WILLISON.
Update
This event has been canceled. We apologize for the inconvenience, and we hope to reschedule!
About The Merry Spinster
From Daniel Mallory Ortberg comes a collection of darkly mischievous stories based on classic fairy tales. Adapted from the beloved "Children's Stories Made Horrific" series, The Merry Spinster takes up the trademark wit that endeared Ortberg to readers of both The Toast and the bestselling Texts From Jane Eyre. The feature has become among the most popular on the site, with each entry bringing in tens of thousands of views, as the stories proved a perfect vehicle for Ortberg’s eye for deconstruction and destabilization. Sinister and inviting, familiar and alien all at the same time, The Merry Spinster updates traditional children's stories and fairy tales with elements of psychological horror, emotional clarity, and a keen sense of feminist mischief.
Unfalteringly faithful to its beloved source material, The Merry Spinster also illuminates the unsuspected, and frequently, alarming emotional complexities at play in the stories we tell ourselves, and each other, as we tuck ourselves in for the night.
Bedtime will never be the same.
Praise
"A collection of stories delectable, formidable, and nimble. As a fantasist and short story writer, Mallory Ortberg is without peer." ―Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble
"Dear Reader: It would, truthfully, be simplest to call the stories in The Merry Spinster ‘retellings,’ but that word does not adequately capture their dark alchemy. Mallory Ortberg has created a Frankenstein’s monster of familiar narratives . . . [that swings] between Terry Pratchett’s satirical jocularity and Angela Carter’s sinister, shrewd storytelling, and the result is gorgeous, unsettling, splenic, cruel, and wickedly smart. I’ve never read anything quite like them, and I bet, Dear Reader, that you haven’t either." ―Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties: Stories
"Mallory Ortberg has a voracious appetite for poison apples and a genius for finding the places in fairyland where all the bodies are buried. The Merry Spinster will ruin your most-loved fables, in the best possible way." ―Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky
Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes
As you exit the station, reverse your direction and walk east along Mass. Ave. in front of the Cambridge Savings Bank. Cross Dunster St. and proceed along Mass. Ave for three more blocks. You will pass Au Bon Pain, JP Licks, and TD Bank. Harvard Book Store is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St.
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