Reading Tribute to Thomas Bernhard February 18, 2007

Austrian novelist, playwright and poet Thomas Bernhard (1931–89) is not as widely read in the U.S. as he is throughout Europe, but here too, his influence among innovative writers is outsized. Gleefully embracing his role as Austria's preeminent Nestbeschmutzer ("nest-fouler"), he embroidered his boundless dissatisfaction with existence into monologues that reach a comic fever pitch through relentless exaggeration, repetition and contradiction.

On Feb. 18 at KGB, Wayne Koestenbaum, Rhonda Lieberman, Ben Marcus, Geoffrey O'Brien and Dale Peck will read and discuss selections from Bernhard masterpieces including Old Masters, Correction, Yes, Gathering Evidence and others, and discuss their encounters with his work.

Wayne Koestenbaum has published five books of poetry, most recently Best-Selling Jewish Porn Films. His next book, Hotel Theory, will be published in spring 2007. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center, and currently also a Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Art.

Rhonda Lieberman, the only woman on this panel, is a New York-based writer, a Contributing Editor of Artforum, a Visiting Critic at the Yale School of Art, and a longtime admirer of Bernhard's super-crabby oeuvre.

Ben Marcus is the author of The Age of Wire and String and Notable American Women. He has published fiction and essays in Harper's, The Paris Review, Tin House, McSweeney's, and Conjunctions.

Geoffrey O'Brien is the author of Sonata for Jukebox, The Browser's Ecstasy, and other books.

Dale Peck is a novelist and critic. His new novel, The Garden of Lost and Found, will be published this fall. His favorite Bernhard novels are Old Masters, Concrete, and Woodcutters, although not always in that order.

FREE

Official Website: http://www.kgbbar.com/calendar/event/2007-02-18_fiction_a_tribu.html