Novelist and essayist Jonathan Franzen put his private life on public display.

Russian-born satirical writer Gary Shteyngart explains his approach to writing "at a time when evil and stupidity collide."

Short story writer Deborah Eisenberg discussed her "dense, jewel-like" writing at BAM's Eat, Drink & Be Literary series.

Author Jimmy Breslin is a New Yorker through and through. In 1969, the tough-as-nails journalist ran for New York City Council president on the platform that the city should secceed from the rest of the state.

Novelist Jeanette Winterson once observed, "as a writer, your best friends are dead."

Feminist icon Germaine Greer is no stranger to speaking her mind.

Mad Men Producer Matthew Weiner may have created the character of Don Draper, but he is nothing like his inscrutable leading man. 

Joshua Ferris, Ron Carlson and Padgett Powell could start a planet together. A stream of other-worldly characters run through each of their works. So it seems natural the three authors did readings at Joe’s Pub as part Amanda Stern’s Happy Ending series.

David M. Buss believes that sex isn’t just for pleasure and reproduction.  He's an evolutionary psychologist and a professor at the University of Texas, and he spoke about everybody’s favorite topic at the American Museum of Natural History on February 3rd.

Email is ruining our lives.  That's the conclusion at the heart of Granta editor John Freeman's book, "The Tyranny of Email: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox."  Freeman took the stage uptown to wax longingly for the days of good, old fashioned letter-writing.