A Talk on Bridgehampton's Literary Legends

This spring, the Bridgehampton Museum and Canio’s Books are presenting a new lecture series highlighting the East End’s connection to literary history. Two upcoming talks will be focused on the careers of well-known writers and their connections to the local area. They will be presented at the museum’s Nathaniel Rogers House, 2539 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton. Admission is free. Register at bridgehamptonmuseum.org. To join either presentation on Zoom, provide the museum with an email address and look out for a confirmation email that will include a link to RSVP for the Zoom session.

“Agent of Change: Kurt Vonnegut, the Civic-Minded, Darkly-Comic Writer” — Saturday, April 12 at 5 p.m.

Soon after “Slaughterhouse-Five” became a best seller, an interviewer asked Vonnegut why he wrote. He answered, “My motives are political. I agree with Stalin and Hitler and Mussolini that the writer should serve his society. I differ with dictators as to how writers should serve.” Presenter Suzanne McConnell will trace the passions that fueled Vonnegut’s writing, the ingredients that shaped his views, and the honing of his craft — especially his humor — that allowed him to realize his work. She’ll share anecdotes of Vonnegut and his motives as a teacher at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Together, we might consider what he would be writing today.

Suzanne McConnell was a student of Kurt Vonnegut’s at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and they remained friends. She’s published memoirs of him in The Brooklyn Rail and The Writer’s Digest, led a panel at the AWP conference on Vonnegut’s legacy regarding war, lectured on his work at the American Academy in Berlin, and her book on his writing advice, “Pity the Reader: on Writing with Style” by Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell, was published in 2019 by Seven Stories Press. McConnell has published essays, poems, and award-winning short stories. She taught writing at Hunter College, and was fiction editor of Bellevue Literary Review and is now a contributing editor. Her novel, “Fence of Earth” is being represented for publication by The Phillip G. Spitzer Literary Agency. She lives in Manhattan and Wellfleet, Massachusetts, with her husband, the visual artist Gary Kuehn.

“Growing Up Literary: George Plimpton’s Son Reflects” — Saturday, May 10, at 5pm

Author and essayist Taylor Plimpton, son of Paris Review founding editor George Plimpton, reminisces on growing up among giants of the written word like Peter Matthiessen and next-door neighbor Kurt Vonnegut in Sagaponack, one of the most remarkable literary hamlets in the world.

Taylor Plimpton is the author of the memoir, “Notes From the Night: A Life After Dark.” He regularly contributes essays to Sports Illustrated, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, The New Yorker, A Public Space, The Paris Review Daily, and many other periodicals. Plimpton is currently finishing up a collection entitled “Who My Dog Thinks I Am: Essays and Other True Tales.” He graduated with a degree in English from Reed College and lives with his family (including his mostly good dog, Brooklyn) in Pleasantville, New York.