Ada Calhoun
Appearances & Tours
Past Appearances
A talk and slideshow, with a Q&A session at the end. Free to all!
Want to study memoir with me? This August I’ll be teaching a weeklong seminar for the third straight summer at Omega Institute in upstate NY. The last two classes were really fun and students made tons of progress on their books! All levels are welcome! Sign up here.
Writing Lives
4:00 PM at The Norfolk Library
Ada Calhoun, author of Also a Poet; Frank O’Hara, My Father and Me and Priscilla Gilman, author of The Critics Daughter: A Memoir. In conversation with novelist and memoirist, Courtney Maum.
- WORKSHOP: MEMOIR
- Saturday, September 16, 2023
- 11:00 AM 3:00 PM
- The Church48 Madison StreetSag Harbor, NY, 11963United States
- Dig into memoir writing and find ways to interweave the personal and the universal, so that the resulting work is neither diary nor reportage—rather a work of art that lets readers in on a new way of being a human in the world.
Led by New York Times bestselling author Ada Calhoun, this four-hour workshop will focus on the development of themes, characters, narrative arcs, and style in a memoir. Through writing exercises, readings, and group discussions, participants will learn what it means to write about themselves and the people they hold close – discovering the ways in which it can be fraught or liberating, or both at once. Hosted in The Rectory, our artists residency house, this class will be a safe, supportive place to develop ideas and begin work on a memoir of your own. Ticket purchase includes a light luncheon to be served at the halfway point.
This workshop has been programmed in tandem with a memoir panel discussion at The Church on September 17th, 2023. Moderated by Jill Bialosky, Calhoun will be a featured speaker alongside authors Alice Carrière and Kelly McMasters for a conversation about their memoirs, all of which relate to the experience of intimacy with artists.
P&T Knitwear, in conjunction with the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative (LESPI), East Village Community Coalition (EVCC), and Village Preservation is pleased to welcome Ada Calhoun for a discussion of her books St. Marks is Dead and Also A Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me, along with an audience Q&A and book signing!
Ada will be joined in conversation by Deborah Wye, Director of LESPI. After the talk, Ada will sign copies of her books. This event is presented in partnership with the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, the East Village Community Coalition (EVCC), and the Greenwich Village Sociaty for Historic Preservation as part of their programming.
"Wine and Pine: A Reading Series about Desire, Rachel Gilman's new series kicking off in August. Each month at Ten Degrees Bar in the heart of the East Village, three readers working across nonfiction, fiction, and poetry will share their writing in all its unabashed longing glory. Maisy Card (These Ghosts are Family), Taylor Zhang (of Choo Choo Press), and Ada Calhoun (Why We Can't Sleep, Also a Poet) will be kicking things off. There will be also curated drink specials, delicious food, and homemade desserts. Definitely a night you don't want to miss."
In this 5-day intensive, New York Times bestselling author Ada Calhoun helps you develop the themes of—and make significant progress on—a memoir. Calhoun is author of the New York Times bestseller Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis, as well as the New York history St. Marks Is Dead, the memoir Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give, and Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me. Class members will read and discuss one another's work, as well as the work of important memoirists, and each hour of class will feature multiple writing exercises.
Award-winning Elizabeth McCracken plays with genre in The Hero of This Book, her new novel about a writer ruminating on, and grieving, her recently deceased mother. New York Times bestselling author Ada Calhoun traces her life, her complicated relationship with her father, and their shared love of the poet Frank O’Hara in her new memoir Also A Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me. These two dynamic authors will talk about art, memory, and larger-than-life parents.
Woodstock Bookfest always closes with our signature panel, Memoir-A-Go-Go. Memoir speaks to our most basic impulse to tell our stories around the fire. It allows us insight into perspectives outside of our own, and a peek into the human experience of others. Moderated by Martha Frankel, the powerhouse behind Bookfest, this year’s Memoir-A-Go-Go is sure to be entertaining and engaging. With: Rebecca Carroll, Priscilla Gilman, Ann Hood, Courtney Maum, Aileen Weintraub.
SATURDAY: Moderating:
Saturday, November 19 @ 3:30 pmRoom 8203 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132 United States
Samantha Cole With Ada Calhoun: A Conversation
Samantha Cole‘s How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex: A History is a serious yet entertaining look at the convergence of sex and the internet. Cole has been on this beat for years as a senior writer for Vice, and here she offers up a highly visual history filled with broad themes and backstories, pioneering personalities...
SUNDAY: Paneling:
Sunday, November 20 @ 4:30 pmAuditorium (Building 1, 2nd Floor, Room 1261)300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL 33132 United States
Rebecca Donner, Ada Calhoun & Maud Newton: A Conversation
EARFULL is a performance series featuring writers and musicians doing their respective things in an intimate setting. WRITERS read from their new books, or about-to-be books, or right from their crumpled up notes. MUSICIANS range from harpists to horn blowers, from solo songwriters to full-on rock bands. EARFULL EVENINGS offer food & drink at the venue, and time between acts to socialize. Nov 15 we welcome authors Ada Calhoun and Peter Orner, and musical acts Matt Charette and Duel (Featuring Jen Kearney and Peter MacLean). More about Earfull at https://earfull.org/.
LESPI's in-person, outdoor book talk by author Ada Calhoun on her books “St. Marks is Dead” &“Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father and Me."
A rare memoir workshop this August 2022 at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY! Explore tactics of memoir writing, develop your themes, and get a lot of writing done in this intensive with New York Times bestselling author Ada Calhoun.
In conversation with Emma Straub of the delightful new novel THIS TIME TOMORROW! Expect lots about fathers and daughters, fiction vs. nonfiction, and NYC of many eras! Reserve soon because the event is in-store and will be capped at 50 people.
Please join us in person on Sunday, July 17 at 3pm, as Ada Calhoun reads and discusses her latest book: Also A Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me. Publication date: June 14, 2022.
Magic City Books is proud to welcome Ada Calhoun for a free event to celebrate Also A Poet, her staggering memoir tracing her fraught relationship with her father and their shared obsession with a great poet.
Joining Ada in conversation will be Magic City Books co-founder Jeff Martin. They will be in conversation on Tuesday July 12 at 7:00 pm in the Algonquin Room at Magic City Books.
You can order a copy of Also A Poet by Ada Calhoun (to be published on June 14) at Magic City Books or online at: https://magiccitybooks.square.site/product/also-a-poet/773.
A free, in-person event to discuss the staggering new memoir from New York Times-bestselling author Ada Calhoun tracing her fraught relationship with her father and their shared obsession with a great poet.
Alongside Bay Area Book Fest’s Women Lit, we’re proud to host a visit by Ada Calhoun, author of Also a Poet, Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me, in conversation with Ruby member, Kristin Keane, author of Encyclopedia of Bending Time. The event is free but requires registration via this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/irl-in-conversation-with-ada-calhoun-author-of-also-a-poet-tickets-354419266567
The location of the event will be sent only to registrees.
In honor of Frank O’Hara and Pride Week, we will also be collecting donations on behalf of the Trevor Project, a national, 24-hour, toll free confidential suicide prevention service for LGBTQ youth. This will be an all-genders welcome event.
Staff Pick
I picked this book up because, like Ada Calhoun, and her father, Peter Schjeldahl, I love Frank O'Hara's poems. As I hoped and expected it would, Also a Poet delivered wonderful anecdotes about O'Hara and his milieu that I hadn't previously heard. I was surprised and delighted to be just as invested in Calhoun's focus on her complex relationship with her father, writing, gender, and art. Also a Poet charmed and moved me. I'll be revisiting Frank O'Hara, and seeking out Calhoun's earlier books. Recommended By Adam P., Powells.com
Ada Calhoun will discuss Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me. She will be joined in conversation by Jeff Deutsch.
This event will be held in-person at the Seminary Co-op. Masks are required for attendees.
We are thrilled to welcome Ada Calhoun, the author of St. Marks Is Dead, Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, and Why We Can’t Sleep. Ada has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, and the Washington Post and lives in NYC. Join us at the Farmer's Market under the tent for a conversation!
Join us in person to welcome Ada Calhoun discussing her new memoir Also a Poet! This is an in-store, in person event free and open for all to attend!
Porter Square Books is thrilled to welcome Ada Calhoun for Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me. “In this fluidly morphing, magnetically candid chronicle… Calhoun offers an arresting and provocative carousel of family dynamics, creative paradoxes, literary history, unnerving dilemmas, thorny questions of inheritance and legacy, wry humor, and love," praises Booklist in one of the four starred reviews Also a Poet has received from various publications. Alysia Abbott, local author and the head of GrubStreet's memoir incubator program, will join the author in conversation. This event will take place on Wednesday, June 15 at 7pm ET at Porter Square Books: Cambridge edition. Masks will be required for all in attendance. RSVPs, while not required, are strongly recommended!
Join us for a conversation about writing nonfiction about poetry! It’s FREE, and anyone can register, though the target audience is librarians and educators!
Panelists:
Ada Calhoun, Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me, Grove Press: Grove Atlantic
Ross Gay, Joy Is a Force, Algonquin Books: Workman Publishing: Hachette Book Group
Robert Pinsky, Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet, W. W. Norton: W. W. Norton & Company
Moderator: Barbara Hoffert, Editor, Prepub Alert, LJ
THE QUICK PITCH: AUTHORS MEET BOOKSELLERS
Our author guests will rotate from table to table to give booksellers their best 4-minute pitches! Enjoy this fast-paced speed dating event, and discover a spectacular array of books and authors for your store.
Powell's Books Presents Jeff Deutsch in Conversation With Ada Calhoun
Do we need bookstores in the 21st century? If so, what makes a good one? In his beautifully written book, In Praise of Good Bookstores (Princeton), Jeff Deutsch — director of Chicago's Seminary Co-op Bookstores, one of the finest bookstores in the world — pays loving tribute to one of our most important and endangered civic institutions.
Writing about Love in the Modern World : a conversation with Waylon Lewis (Elephant Journal)
