JULIA MARKUS
Celebrating Lady Byron: A Reading and Conversation
THE CULTURE CENTER
410 Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10024
“A Celebration of Lady Byron: Reading and Conversation” was a combination of refinement and literary gossip befitting Annabella herself. Introductions by Phillis Levin and Margaret Ducharme kicked off the evening at one of New York’s subtler salons, the New York Cultural Center. Amidst monastic Buddhist art and stoney arches, acclaimed biographer and fiction author Julia Markus, gave a sweeping (and at times shocking) overview of the Byrons’ relationship and subsequent separation, sparking an intimate and lively conversation between members and guests alike. Ranging from the slave trade and upperclass Recency era bawds to the social function of gossip, the works of Henry James and Tom Stoppard, and how Ada Byron helped NASA, the discussion lasted well beyond the evening’s end. The extensive and enlightening chat was complimented by gourmet refreshments, including prosciutto wrapped asparagus, caprese kabobs, and fine wine.
JULIA MARKUS is the author of four acclaimed novels, including Uncle, which won the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship, and four acclaimed biographies, including Dared and Done: The Marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. Her latest biography, Lady Byron and Her Daughters, has been short-listed for the international Elma Dangerfield Prize (to be awarded in Paris this July). The biography received rave reviews, including in the Sunday New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, and in The New Yorker. She was a Visiting Fellow at Oxford while researching Lady Byron. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and two National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowships, Markus is Professor of English and the Director of Undergraduate Creative Writing at Hofstra University. To find out more about her books and her travels with Lady Byron, see her web site: juliamarkuswrites.com