Scarf-Merrell & Franklin on Tap for Writers Speak

[caption id="attachment_57657" align="alignnone" width="800"] Author of "Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life," Ruth Franklin. Photo was taken at her home in Brooklyn, New York on, February 20, 2015.[/caption]

Critic and author Ruth Franklin will be the fifth guest in the fall Writers Speak Wednesdays series of free talks and readings open to the public at Stony Brook Southampton. Ms. Franklin will read from and talk about her work with author, MFA in Creative Writing faculty member, and Southampton Writers Conference Director Susan Scarf Merrell—a Sag Harbor resident—on Wednesday, November 30, at 7 p.m. in the Radio Lounge on the second floor of Chancellors Hall, following a brief reception beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Ms. Franklin is a film and literary critic who writes for The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, and Salmagundi as well as many other publications. A former editor at The New Republic, Ms. Franklin’s first book was “A Thousand Darknesses: Truth and Lies in Holocaust Fiction.”

Her most recent book, “Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life,” was released in September 2016. Books by Ms. Scarf-Merrell, a former journalist, include the nonfiction “The Accidental Bond: How Sibling Connections Influence Adult Relationships” and two works of fiction, “A Member of the Family” and “SHIRLEY: A Novel.”

Writers Speak Wednesdays programs are free and open to the public. The evenings begin with a brief reception at 6:30 p.m.; readings begin at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A and book signing. All programs are held in the Radio Lounge on the second floor of Chancellors Hall at Stony Brook Southampton, 239 Montauk Highway in Southampton. For more information, call (631) 632-5030 or visit www.stonybrook.edu/mfa.