Inscribing Grief: Martha Cooley, Charles Bock, Max Winter and Mira Jacob

Three writers whose latest works deal with grief and mourning join to investigate the ways in which writing can capture these complex, difficult emotions. With Martha Cooley (Guesswork: A Reckoning with Loss,) Charles Bock (Alice & Oliver,) and Max Winter (Exes) and moderator Mira Jacob (The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing).


Martha Cooley is a novelist and author of short fiction, essays, and poetry whose work has appeared in leading literary journals. Her first novel, The Archivist, was a national best-seller published in a dozen foreign markets, and her second, Thirty-Three Swoons, was also published in Italian.

Martha is a Professor of English at Adelphi University, where she’s taught undergraduate and graduate (MFA) students since 2005. She served for fifteen years on the core faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars. In Italy, Martha has led fiction workshops in Cortona, Siena, and Certaldo, and she gives an annual lecture at the British Council in Milan. In 2015, she published (with her co-translator) a translation of the last collection of short stories by Antonio Tabucchi, Time Ages in a Hurry.

Martha is an active member of PEN American Center, where she is involved in Advocate Membership engagement.

Max Winter is a graduate of UC Irvine’s MFA program, a recipient of two Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowships in Fiction, and a finalist for the 2012 MacColl Johnson Fellowship. He contributed to the Webby Award-winning narrative app The Silent History (Ying Horowitz & Quinn, 2012), edited the literary journal Faultline, and has been published in Day One and Diner Journal. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island with his wife and son.

Charles Bock Charles Bock is the author of the novel Beautiful Children, which was a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book, and which won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Harper’sThe New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Slate, as well as in numerous anthologies. He lives with his wife, Leslie Jamison, and his daughter in New York City. Alice & Oliver is his latest novel.

Mira Jacob is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing, which was a Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers pick, shortlisted for India’s Tata First Literature Award, and longlisted for the Brooklyn Literary Eagles Prize. In addition, it was received an honor from the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, and was named one of the best books of 2014 by Kirkus Reviews, the Boston Globe, Goodreads, Bustle, and The Millions. She is the co-founder of much-loved Pete’s Reading Series in Brooklyn, where she spent 13 years bringing literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry to the city’s sweetest stage.

Her recent writing and short stories have appeared in The New York Times, Guernica, Vogue, The Telegraph, Buzzfeed, and Bookanista, and earlier work has appeared in various magazines, books, on television, and across the web. She has appeared on national and local television and radio, and has taught writing to students of all ages in New York, New Mexico, and Barcelona. She currently teaches fiction at NYU. In September 2014, Mira was named the Emerging Novelist Honoree at Hudson Valley Writer’s Center, where she received a commendation from the U.S. Congress.

She is currently drawing and writing her graphic memoir, Good Talk: Conversations I’m Still Confused About (Dial Press, 2018). She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, documentary filmmaker Jed Rothstein, and their son.











When: Wed., May. 10, 2017 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Where: The Center for Fiction
15 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, NY
212-755-6710
Price: Free
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Three writers whose latest works deal with grief and mourning join to investigate the ways in which writing can capture these complex, difficult emotions. With Martha Cooley (Guesswork: A Reckoning with Loss,) Charles Bock (Alice & Oliver,) and Max Winter (Exes) and moderator Mira Jacob (The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing).


Martha Cooley is a novelist and author of short fiction, essays, and poetry whose work has appeared in leading literary journals. Her first novel, The Archivist, was a national best-seller published in a dozen foreign markets, and her second, Thirty-Three Swoons, was also published in Italian.

Martha is a Professor of English at Adelphi University, where she’s taught undergraduate and graduate (MFA) students since 2005. She served for fifteen years on the core faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars. In Italy, Martha has led fiction workshops in Cortona, Siena, and Certaldo, and she gives an annual lecture at the British Council in Milan. In 2015, she published (with her co-translator) a translation of the last collection of short stories by Antonio Tabucchi, Time Ages in a Hurry.

Martha is an active member of PEN American Center, where she is involved in Advocate Membership engagement.

Max Winter is a graduate of UC Irvine’s MFA program, a recipient of two Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowships in Fiction, and a finalist for the 2012 MacColl Johnson Fellowship. He contributed to the Webby Award-winning narrative app The Silent History (Ying Horowitz & Quinn, 2012), edited the literary journal Faultline, and has been published in Day One and Diner Journal. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island with his wife and son.

Charles Bock Charles Bock is the author of the novel Beautiful Children, which was a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book, and which won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Harper’sThe New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Slate, as well as in numerous anthologies. He lives with his wife, Leslie Jamison, and his daughter in New York City. Alice & Oliver is his latest novel.

Mira Jacob is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing, which was a Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers pick, shortlisted for India’s Tata First Literature Award, and longlisted for the Brooklyn Literary Eagles Prize. In addition, it was received an honor from the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, and was named one of the best books of 2014 by Kirkus Reviews, the Boston Globe, Goodreads, Bustle, and The Millions. She is the co-founder of much-loved Pete’s Reading Series in Brooklyn, where she spent 13 years bringing literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry to the city’s sweetest stage.

Her recent writing and short stories have appeared in The New York Times, Guernica, Vogue, The Telegraph, Buzzfeed, and Bookanista, and earlier work has appeared in various magazines, books, on television, and across the web. She has appeared on national and local television and radio, and has taught writing to students of all ages in New York, New Mexico, and Barcelona. She currently teaches fiction at NYU. In September 2014, Mira was named the Emerging Novelist Honoree at Hudson Valley Writer’s Center, where she received a commendation from the U.S. Congress.

She is currently drawing and writing her graphic memoir, Good Talk: Conversations I’m Still Confused About (Dial Press, 2018). She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, documentary filmmaker Jed Rothstein, and their son.

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