AIW Special Event: Stephen Elliott in Washington, DC—Friday, November 20, 2009

AIW Special Event—Friday, November 20, 2009

Program: 7:00-9:00 p.m. (we suggest arriving at 6:30 p.m. to place food and beverage orders)

TEAISM Penn Quarter
400 Eighth Street, N.W., Eighth and D Streets N.W.
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 638-6010
Metro: Yellow & Green—Archives/Navy Memorial, Red—Gallery Place/Chinatown, Blue—Federal Triangle

Stephen Elliott, at his only Washington appearance

Featuring a talk by the author and readings from his highly praised new memoir THE ADDERALL DIARIES: A Memoir of Moods, Masochism, and Murder.

In the spring of 2007, a brilliant and well-known computer programmer named Hans Reiser stands accused of murdering his beautiful, estranged wife, Nina. Despite a mountain of circumstantial evidence against him, he proclaims his innocence, and the body is yet to be found. The case takes an unusual twist when Nina’s former lover, and Hans’ former best friend, Sean Sturgeon, confesses to eight unrelated murders that no one has ever heard of. When a reporter contacts Stephen Elliott about Sturgeon—whose path he has crossed in San Francisco’s underground S&M scene—Elliott is paralyzed by writer’s block, in the thrall of Adderall dependency, and despondent over his inability to maintain a stable romantic relationship. The reporter’s questions spur Elliott to rethink Sturgeon, and to wonder exactly what kind of person confesses to murders he likely did not commit? Perhaps a man like Elliott’s own father.

So begins a brave and riveting journey through a neon landscape of false confessions, self-medication, and torturous sex. Set against the backdrop of a nation at war, in the declining years of the Silicon Valley tech boom and the dawn of Paris Hilton’s celebrity, The Adderall Diaries is at once a gripping account of a murder trial and a scorching investigation of self. Tough, tender, and unflinchingly honest, it is a breakout book by one of the most daring writers of his generation.

“Elliot may be writing under the influence, but it’s the influence of genius,” Vanity Fair

“A refined, beautiful work of art,” Kirkus Reviews Starrer review

“Harrowing, riveting,” Amy Tan

Stephen Elliott is the author of seven books including The Adderall Diaries (September 2009) and Happy Baby, a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lion Award as well as a best book of 2004 in Salon.com, Newsday, Chicago New City, the Journal News, and the Village Voice. In addition to writing fiction he frequently writes on politics. In 2004 he wrote Looking Forward To It, about the quest for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Elliott’s writing has been featured in Esquire, The New York Times, GQ, Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 and 2007, Best American Erotica, and Best Sex Writing 2006. He was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and is a member of the San Francisco Writer’s Grotto. He is the editor of The Rumpus.

Books will be available for purchase and signing.

There is no charge for this event, but you are responsible for your food and beverage purchases.
RSVP to rsvp@aiwriters.org or paula@paulawhyman.com.

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Tagged as: adderall diaries, AIW, American Independent Writers, stephen elliott, washington dc