July 15, 2003

Major Author to Share Stories at MASS MoCA

(North Adams, Mass.) The creative mind behind best-selling novels like Garden State and The Ice Storm, author Rick Moody's work has been called "intricate, finely woven, nuanced, and subtly ironic". A master of perforating the surface of the seemingly ordinary life of suburban America, he will share stories and discuss the writing life at MASS MoCA on Friday, August 15, at 7 P.M. in Rick Moody: America Rewritten, co-presented with Inkberry. According to Elle magazine, "Moody writes exquisite, word-smitten prose".

"Moody has artfully crafted a genre-breaking standout that interweaves literary criticism and family myths with his own recovery from addiction and depression," according to the Library Journal's review of his memoir The Black Veil. The review went on to say, "His lyrical phrases and wry sense of humor masterfully tie together unconventional observations and disparate threads about family history, headline news, and etymology."

Author Rick Moody attended both Brown and Columbia Universities. His first novel, Garden State, won the 1991 Editors' Book Award from the Pushcart Press. The Ice Storm was published in more than 15 different countries and was produced in film version, directed by Ang Lee. The title story of his short fiction collection, The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven, won the 1994 Aga Khan Award from The Paris Review. Moody's honors and awards include the Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a 2000 Guggenheim fellowship. He has taught at the State University of New York at Purchase, the Bennington Writing Seminars, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the New School for Social Research. His most recent work, The Black Veil: A Memoir with Digressions, is a compelling piece about the long road to recovery and his need to understand who he really is. He and his father began a pilgrimage journey driving through New England to pursue a rumored genealogical link between himself and the Reverend Joseph Moody, a tortured, guilty man who was the inspiration for the central character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil." The Black Veil goes beyond insight into Joseph Moody's pathos. It is an account of Moody's subsequent quest to find what lay behind his own figurative veil, an intense odyssey into the past that ultimately illustrates how our ancestry makes us who we are.

Inkberry is co-presenting the event. MASS MoCA's Alternative Cabaret series is co-sponsored by the Valley Advocate and Barrington Brewery.

Founded in 2000, Inkberry is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the literary arts in and around Berkshire County. Through workshops geared towards every level of writer, and a reading series that both brings established writers into the community and promotes local talent, Inkberry aims to strengthen connections between writing and life, and to create a place where everyone can discover his or her voice.

Lickety Split will be open to serve dinner and snacks starting at 6 P.M. when the doors open. There will also be a full bar. In case of rain, the event will be moved indoors to Club B-10.

Tickets to Rick Moody: America Rewritten are $8. MASS MoCA members get 10% off. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located on Marshall Street in North Adams from 10 A.M. until 6 P.M. daily. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or online at www.massmoca.org at any time of day.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located off Marshall St. in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org