Jonathan Franzen
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Literary Arts

Jonathan Franzen

Past Event: Tuesday, September 14, 2010

At Benaroya Hall — S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium

On Autobiography & Fiction-Writing: An Evening with Jonathan Franzen
Author Jonathan Franzen investigates the personal dynamics of fiction writing by addressing four perennial questions that novelists are asked: Who are your influences? What time of day do you work and what do you write on? Do your characters “take over” and tell you what to do? And, is your fiction autobiographical?

Jonathan Franzen grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, afraid of “spiders, insomnia, fish hooks, school dances, hardball, heights, bees, urinals, puberty, music teachers, dogs, the school cafeteria, censure, older teenagers, jellyfish, locker rooms, boomerangs, and popular girls.” Franzen shed his fears as he grew up, and after graduating from Swarthmore College in 1981, he studied in Berlin as a Fulbright scholar and later worked in a seismology lab at Harvard. In his memoir, The Discomfort Zone (2006), Franzen explores the influence of his childhood and adolescence on his creative life. After college, Franzen married a fellow classmate and writer and begin a quiet, isolated domestic life dedicated to reading and writing. They eventually divorced, but the method of isolation remained integral for his writing. Franzen often worked in the dark, with the blinds drawn, wearing earplugs, earmuffs, and a blindfold.

Jonathan Franzen published his first novel The Twenty-Seventh City in 1988; his second, Strong Motion, in 1992. His third novel, The Corrections, received the National Book Award for fiction, was an international bestseller with translations in 35 languages and American hardcover sales of nearly one million copies. Lev Grossman in TIME magazine called the books “a symphony of Midwestern, middle-class mental suffering that conveys depression and anxiety more entertainingly and eloquently than almost any book I’ve ever read…which instantly made Franzen the premier literary novelist in his age bracket.” In response to the attention and acclaim The Corrections received, Franzen responded with his inspiration for the novel: “The most important experience of my life, to date, is the experience of growing up in the Midwest with the particular parents I had. I feel as if they couldn’t fully speak for themselves, and I feel as if their experience—their values, their experiences of being alive—of being born in the beginning of the century and dying towards the end of it…I feel as if I’m part of that and it’s part of me.”

Franzen is also the author of a bestselling collection of essays, How to Be Alone (2002). He recently published a new translation from German of the play Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind. His short stories and essays have appeared in The New YorkerThe Best American EssaysThe New York Times, and The Guardian. He was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. His other honors include a Whiting Writers Award and a Guggenheim fellowship. The Times of Londonnamed The Corrections as one of the “100 Best Books of the Decade.” Franzen lives in New York City and Boulder Creek, California. His most recent novel, Freedom, was published August 2010.

Selected Work 

Novels
The Twenty-Seventh City (1988)
Strong Motion (1992)
The Corrections (2001), recipient of National Book Award for Fiction, New York Times Best Books of the Year, Salon Book Award (Fiction), Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist
Freedom (August 2010)

Non-fiction

The Discomfort Zone (2006)
memoirHow to Be Alone (2002), essays

Links
Emily Eakin on The Corrections, and Franzen’s process (New York Times, September 2001) 
Short Story: Breakup Stories (The New Yorker, November 2004)
Short Story: Are We There Yet? Countdown (The New Yorker, April 2005)
How Jonathan Franzen Learned To Stop Worrying (Sort Of) (Time, August 2006)
Jonathan Franzen’s National Book Award Acceptance Speech (National Book Foundation, 2001)
Jonathan Franzen interview with Donald Antrim (Bomb Magazine, Fall 2001)
Audio interview with The New Yorker’s Deborah Treisman, “Sound of No Birds Singing”

Event Details

Benaroya Hall — S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium

200 University Street
Seattle, WA 98101

View directions.

Transportation & Parking

This event will be held in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, the largest event space at Benaroya Hall. 

Benaroya Hall is located at 200 University Street, directly across Second Avenue from the Seattle Art Museum. The public entrance to Benaroya Hall is along Third Avenue.

By Car

  • From Southbound I-5
    Take the Union Street exit (#165B). Continue onto Union Street and proceed approximately five blocks to Second Avenue. Turn left onto Second Avenue. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your immediate left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.
  • From Northbound I-5
    Exit left onto Seneca Street (exit #165). Proceed two blocks and turn right onto Fourth Avenue. Continue two blocks. Turn left onto Union Street. Continue two blocks. Turn left onto Second Avenue. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your immediate left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.
  • From Northbound I-5 via Westbound I-90
    Take the 2C exit for I-5 North. Follow signs for Madison Street/Convention Place and merge right onto Seventh Avenue. Turn left onto Madison Street. Proceed three blocks and turn right onto Fourth Avenue. Continue four blocks. Turn left onto Union Street. Continue two blocks. Turn left onto Second Avenue. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your immediate left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.

By Public Transit (Bus & Light Rail)

Benaroya Hall is served by numerous bus routes. Digital reader boards along Third Avenue display real-time bus arrival information. For details and trip planning tools, call Metro Rider Information at 206.553.3000 (voice) or 206.684.1739 (TDD), or visit Metro online. The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, served by light rail, has a stop just below the Hall (University Street Station).

Parking

The 430-car underground garage at Benaroya Hall provides direct access from the enclosed parking area into the Hall via elevators leading to The Boeing Company Gallery. Enter the garage on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street. Maximum vehicle height is 6’8″. ChargePoint charging stations are available for electric vehicles. Visit the Benaroya Hall website for event pricing.

Parking is also available at:

  • The Cobb Building (enter on University Street between Third and Fourth avenues).
  • The Russell Investments Center (enter on Union Street between First and Second avenues).
  • There are many other garages within a one-block radius of Benaroya Hall, along with numerous on-street parking options.

Accessibility

Open Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where a captioning screen displaying the words that are spoken or sung is placed on stage. This option is present at every event at Benaroya Hall in our 2021/22 Season.

Closed Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where captioning displays the words that are spoken or sung at the bottom of the video during an online event. Captioning is available for all online events; click the “CC” button to view captions during the event.

Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs) are devices that people with hearing loss use in conjunction with their hearing device (hearing aids or cochlear implants). Benaroya Hall has an infrared hearing system, which transmits sound by light beams. Headsets are available in The Boeing Company Gallery coat check and the Head Usher stations in both lobbies.

Sign Language Interpretation is available upon request for Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing individuals for both in-person and online events. To make a request for interpretation, please contact us at [email protected] or 206.621.2230×10, or select “Sign Language Interpretation” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process and we will contact you to confirm details. Please note: we appreciate a two-week advance notice to allow us time to secure interpretation.

Wheelchair Accessible Seating and Accessible Restrooms are available in all sections at our venues, and our venues are fully accessible to ticket holders with physical mobility concerns. Among other features, Benaroya Hall has designated parking spaces adjacent to elevators in their parking garage. Elevators with Braille signage go to all levels within the Hall. To reserve seating for a specific mobility concern, you may select “Wheelchair Accessible or Alternative Seating Options” during ticket checkout, and we will contact you to confirm details. For more details on their accessibility features, click here.

Guide and service dogs are welcome.

Gender neutral restrooms are available.

We are pleased to offer these accessibility services at our venues, and they are provided at no additional cost to ticket holders. Please contact us with any questions and feedback about how we can be more accessible and inclusive. Our Patron Services Manager is available at [email protected], or Monday-Friday from 10:00am – 5:00pm at 206.621.2230×10.

For more accessibility information, please head to lectures.org/accessibility. If you would like to make accessibility arrangements you do not see listed here, please contact our box office or select “Other Accommodations” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process, and we will contact you to confirm details.