Duncan Hannah is is an artist who became popular in the 1970’s in New York’s avant-garde and glam and punk rock scenes, acted in a number of underground movies, and showed several of his figurative portraits in 1980’s infamous Times Square Show. His work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Art Institute. His new book is Twentieth-Century Boy: Notebooks of the Seventies. Duncan is speaking at House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining show on March 20th, themed A Matter of Time, alongside David Enrich, Stefan Merrill Block, and Joselin Linder. We spoke to Duncan ahead of the show… Describe your current project: I edited my journals from the 1970’s, which Knopf is releasing as “20th Century Boy” What is your earliest memory involving reading or writing? Probably either Curious George or Harold and the Purple Crayon. What is your favorite line from your current work? The last line of the book, “Look for what you love.” What is your favorite first line of a novel? “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities What advice would you give to aspiring writers? Be a vacation reader! What writer do […]

Sandy Allen is the former BuzzFeed features editor and co-founder of the online literary magazine Wag’s Revue. Their essays have been featured in Best American Essays and Best American Science and Nature Writing. Sandy is the author of the memoir A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story about Schizophrenia, about their uncle. Sandy spoke at House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining show on January 30th, Caught in the Act alongside Christopher J. Yates, Elif Shafak, and Michael Wolff. We spoke to Sandy ahead of the show…   Describe your current project: “In 2009, writer Sandy Allen got something in the mail from their uncle Bob. It was his autobiography, typed on sixty pages in all-capital letters. Bob was a self-described ‘hermit’ who lived in a Californian desert. Sandy didn’t know him well. On the phone, he said he wanted to get his story “out there” because it was “true.” In A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story about Schizophrenia, they share his story with the world. ​ “A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise is written in two fonts. In one, Allen tells their uncle Bob’s life story faithfully to his account — animating his childhood and teenage years in tumultuous […]

David Friend joined Vanity Fair as editor of creative development in 1998, after serving as Life magazine’s director of photography. Friend is the author of Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11. He has won Emmy and Peabody awards as an executive producer of 9/11, a CBS documentary that aired in 140 countries. Friend has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, in Lebanon, and throughout the Middle East. He has organized numerous photography exhibitions, including “Vanity Fair Portraits, 1913–2008,” which he co-curated with Terence Pepper, of the National Potrait Gallery, London. Along with Graydon Carter, Friend edited Vanity Fair’s Hollywood, as well as Oscar Night. His new book is The Naughty Nineties: The Triumph of the American Libido. On December 5th, he will be speaking at House of SpeakEasy’s Seriously Entertaining show, Caught in the Act alongside James Foreman Jr., Laura Lippman, and JT Rogers  (tickets). We spoke to James ahead of the show…   Describe your current project: The Naughty Nineties: The Triumph of the American Libido What is your earliest memory involving reading or writing? Reading Dick, Jane, Spot.  The first story I read at school involved Sally and a cat named Puff. What is your favorite line from your current work? “It was, in […]