House Parties: Short Stories by Lynn Levin
A reading, discussion, and mini lesson
on two aspects of fiction writing with the author
Thursday, January 16, 2025 at 2:00 pm
MacColl Room, First Presbyterian Church
201 S. 21st St.
|  | Fiction writer and poet Lynn Levin returns to Penn's Village with a two-part program. First, she will read "The Ask Sandwich" and "Baby and Gorilla," two flash fiction stories from her critically acclaimed short story collection House Parties (Spuyten Duyvil, 2023). After a reading and discussion of the stories, Lynn will lead a mini lesson on two aspects of fiction writing. Lynn will provide a handout for the mini lesson.
House Parties was named one of the best books of summer by Philadelphia Magazine, which calls the stories "vivid, funny, and quietly powerful...House Parties may break your heart, but it'll never do it the same way twice." The collection comprises 20 stories in which a wide cast of characters pursue whatever right thing or wrong thing they desire—often with weird invention. Readers who love the fiction of Elizabeth Strout, Mary Gordon, Meg Wolitzer, Jim Shepard, and Steve Almond, will find in Lynn Levin’s House Parties more of the humor, gravitas, and irony they admire in contemporary literary fiction.
Books will be available for sale at the event ($20.00, cash or check only). They may also be purchased from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or wherever books are sold.
Lynn Levin is a poet and writer. She teaches English and creative writing at Drexel University and for many years taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania. Called one of the most “poignantly witty voices of our time” (Bucks County Community College), she is the author of nine books, most recently the short story collection House Parties (2023), named one of the best books of summer by Philadelphia Magazine, and the poetry collections The Minor Virtues (2020) and Miss Plastique (2013). Her poetry, fiction, essays, and translations have appeared in Boulevard, Ploughshares, Smartish Pace, Scientific American, Massachusetts Review, The Saturday Evening Post, Michigan Quarterly Review, and other places. Her website is lynnlevinpoet.com.
| LOCATION
This program will be held in the MacColl Room of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, 201 South 21st Street, on the southeast corner of Walnut. The entrance is on the side of the building off of 21st Street. There is an accessible entrance behind the building off of Chancellor St. | RSVP
If you cannot, you may email info@pennsvillage.org or call 215-925-7333. If you cannot attend, please cancel your reservation to make room for others.
This program is free of charge to our members and volunteer partners. Non-member guests are welcome to attend up to three programs before being required to join and/or volunteer with Penn’s Village, or pay $10 per additional program.
Group photos may be taken during this event. | WE VALUE YOUR OPINION
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Penn’s Village welcomes and actively encourages an inclusive and diverse community of members, staff, Board of Directors and volunteers. Inclusiveness and diversity means welcoming all and excluding no one because of age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, physical abilities, religious beliefs or political beliefs. | |