Conference Time
Stony Brook Southampton’s efforts at creativity are appreciated. “A community for practicing and emerging writers (who happen to like the beach),” it is written of the Southampton Writers Conference, which starts on Wednesday, July 15, and offers five days of “workshops with some of the top writers in the country (who happen to like teaching by the beach).”
And then, “Did we mention the beach?” Conferencegoers will be offered free shuttles to one of the best on our fair Island, nay, in all the country — Cooper’s Beach. And as you veterans of the beach-sticker wars here will note, that’s a choice Southampton Village beach.
The faculty ranges from Billy Collins in poetry to Susan Minot (novel), Peter H. Reynolds (picture books), and Frederic Tuten (the short story). Even if the deadline has passed for the intensive sessions, there is a lecture series that for $150 includes “access to all afternoon programming, salons, evening readings, and social gatherings throughout the five days.” Everything you could possibly need to know is at stonybrook.edu/writers.
Two From BookHampton
Also on the Hope It’s Not Too Late front, on Thursday night at 6 Paul Goldberger, the man who a few months ago in The New York Times tried to bring some sanity to the discussion of the plans for Trump’s ballroom, which “will overwhelm the White House and block the view between the White House and the Capitol that has been one of Washington’s signature vistas for more than two centuries,” will interview Michael Murphy about his new book, “Our World in Ten Buildings: How Architecture Defines Who We Are and How We Live.” This will be at BookHampton in downtown East Hampton. Admission is $10.
Now here’s a different setting, and why not? On Sunday at 4 p.m., the bookshop and the Hamptons Whodunit mystery festival will host Daniel Silva in the Pierson High School auditorium in Sag Harbor for a discussion of his latest thriller, “Ransom,” with his wife, Jamie Gangel, once a correspondent for the “Today” show, more lately with CNN. The $32 admission gets you a copy of the book, which officially comes out on Tuesday.