Imagine walking into a bookstore to find your favorite authors beaming behind their books. East Hampton Library brings this unique experience to the East End of Long Island with Authors Night. East Hampton Library’s 18th Annual Authors Night fundraiser is returning to its full-scale, in-person format after being held virtually for the past two years. The event will be held under a grand tent at Herrick Park in East Hampton Village on Saturday, August 13, at 5 PM.
Known as the premier literary event of the Hamptons and one of the most successful celebrations of books and authors in America, the celebrity-studded event hosts 100 authors across all genres at an Authors Reception. Each author is seated behind a table showcasing their books. Guests are invited to mingle with their favorite authors, purchase their books, and get them personally inscribed while enjoying hors d’œuvres and wine. Participating authors include Carl Bernstein, Katie Couric, Tina Brown, Nelson DeMille, and Ali Wentworth, to name but a few.
All proceeds from the night go toward East Hampton Library’s programming, enabling it to continue offering free programs to the community year-round. “East Hampton Library has been around since 1897 and we have tremendous support in our community,” said Sheila Rogers, Chair of the East Hampton Library Board of Directors and Co-Chair of Authors Night. “We are an unusual library in that we raise probably 30 percent of our annual budget from our fundraising events [such as Authors Night] and from donations we receive from people in the community. Most libraries are fully tax supported, but we decided that we really wanted to keep the tax level low for people in the community so that everybody can enjoy the library.”
The East End’s rich literary traditions, plus its close proximity to New York City — home to a myriad of acclaimed authors and publishers — makes it a prime location for this event. Accessible and intimate, Authors Night fosters community among writers and their readers, creating a high energy, social experience centered around the solitary yet unifying act of reading.
Following the Authors Reception, there are about 20 individual dinner parties hosted by supporters of Authors Night in their private homes in East Hampton. Each intimate dinner features and honors one well-known author from the Authors Reception, whom guests dine alongside. “Guests want to be able to have an intimate conversation at a table with an author,” said Rogers, and these dinner parties provide this distinctive, private experience that a restaurant setting may not provide.
Authors Night has evolved considerably since its inception 18 years ago, when it was called Novel Night. Rogers brought Novel Night to the East Hampton Library after hearing about it from the Rye Public Library in Westchester. Rye Library’s Novel Night consisted of themed dinner parties that centered around certain novels. Guests would dress up in costumes in accordance with the period of the selected novel but no authors were involved. The East Hampton Library adopted this concept for a few years before putting their own spin on it. They began inviting authors, expanded the event’s focus from novels to a broader range of books, and rebranded as Authors Night. “Our first Authors Night started with about 20 authors under the tent and we now have almost 100,” said Rogers. One of those original 20 authors was two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Robert A. Caro. According to Rogers, Caro is “a devoted author for Authors Night who recently said that Authors Night gives him incredible energy to want to write more.”
Authors Elyssa Friedland and Cynthia Bardes will be returning to Authors Night this year. Friedland has written five novels and a forthcoming picture book. She teaches an undergraduate novel writing course at Yale and has been published in “The Washington Post,” “Bustle,” “New York Magazine,” and more. Bardes has written a series of six children’s books titled “Pansy the Poodle.” The series has been adapted into a musical titled “Poodleful!” by Riverside Theatre. We asked Friedland and Bardes a few questions about their work and their past experiences at Authors Night.
What made you realize you wanted to be a writer and when?
Elyssa Friedland: I knew I wanted to be a writer probably from the time I was about five. Shortly after I learned to read, I just started consuming books at a really insane rate and I would make my own books as a child, taking computer paper from my dad’s office and stapling the pages together.
Cynthia Bardes: I started writing as a child and I went to Sarah Lawrence College, where there’s a lot of writing. But what really happened is I was a dress designer and I was in stores all over the country. I lived in Los Angeles for about four months and I was walking down Wilshire Boulevard when I was hit by a car. I was flipped over on my knee and had to have major surgery. So while I was recuperating in the hotel, I thought, “I’ve always loved writing. I’m going to start writing a fantasy children’s book about my pet and little muse, Pansy, a brown poodle.”
What drew you to fiction specifically, Friedland? What drew you to picture books, Bardes?
EF: I’ve just always had a really big imagination. I grew up somewhat as an only child, with a big age difference between me and my brother, so I was often alone in the backseat of the car with my parents just staring out the window and I would find myself making up stories in my head. I’ve just always preferred writing about a made-up world to the real world around us.
CB I’ve always liked fantasy and I just thought writing fantasy picture books would be a fun way to start.
Do you have any forthcoming projects that you can talk about?
EF: My fifth novel is coming out September 6. It’s called “The Most Likely Club” and it’s about four women who were very close friends in high school and they reunite at their 25th high school reunion and really face a reckoning with how differently life has turned out than what they expected when they were graduating. I also have [my first] picture book coming out in February. It’s called “The Museum of Lost Teeth” and it tells the story of what happens to kids’ teeth after they fall out.
CB: My first chapter book for eight and nine year olds, “Pansy’s Rainbow,” will be out at the end of November. My next Pansy picture book will be out in fall 2024.
You’ve attended East Hampton Authors Nights in the past. Can you tell me about your experience at the event?
EF: I’ve been twice before and I love it. Sometimes I feel like more of a fan than a writer participating. I have asked my husband in the past, “man the table for five minutes, I need to make my rounds.” There are a lot of authors there whose work I admire and I want to have the chance to be able to tell them. I also feel that the people that come, the non-writers, they’re just true book lovers, people who are genuinely interested in literature and are really excited to meet the authors.
CB: I’ve attended Author’s Night for seven years and I was the only children’s book author in attendance when it started. There are about 100 authors and people come by to speak with them and buy books. I see a lot of repeat customers. In my case, I sign books to somebody’s children or grandchildren.
Authors Night is all about fostering community among writers and readers. What is the most important part for you about having a community and a space to interact and connect with that community as a writer?
EF: Having a writing community is an unexpected treat. When I set out to write my first book, I didn’t know a lot of writers and I just sat alone and wrote and assumed that that was what the job was going to be like. I had no idea that actually, writers are very collegial and when you become more established and over time, you just come to meet not only other writers but bookstore owners and people who work in publishing and it becomes this big community. I feel like I have the best of both worlds in that I get to write, which is so important to me, but I also get a workplace environment and colleagues.
CB: I often attend the East Hampton Library’s children’s fair, where there are about 20 children’s book authors signing books. I love to see children run into signings and say, “we love Pansy!” It is gratifying to interact with this community of young readers who are excited about what I create.
For a full list of all participating authors, visit authorsnight.org.