Anne Gisleson, Writer

Anne Gisleson, Writer https://annegisleson.com Anne Gisleson, Writer Sat, 13 Aug 2022 19:37:38 +0000 https://annegisleson.com en Untitled page http://annegisleson.com/Untitled-page-1 Sat, 13 Aug 2022 19:37:38 +0000 Anne Gisleson, Writer 428899 Untitled page http://annegisleson.com/Untitled-page Mon, 01 Aug 2022 17:47:05 +0000 Anne Gisleson, Writer 428413 About http://annegisleson.com/About Fri, 31 Aug 2018 16:37:52 +0000 Anne Gisleson, Writer 286404 Anne Gisleson is the author of The Futilitarians: Our Year of Thinking, Drinking, Grieving and Reading (Little, Brown), a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Oxford American, The Believer and many other publications. Her essays have been featured in several anthologies such as Best American Non-Required Reading, Airplane Reading, Life in the Wake, and others. She co-edited and co-wrote How to Rebuild a City: Field Guide from a Work in Progress, about ground-up rebuilding efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and her work has also appeared in several books of art and photography, most recently in Akasha Rabut's Death Magick Abundance and Cheryl Gerber's Cherchez la Femme. Her nonfiction book Louisiana Iris is forthcoming from LSU Press’ Louisiana True series. She teaches at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, the University of New Orleans MFA program and is co-founder of the literary and visual arts non-profit Antenna.  On Anne Gisleson’s The Futilitarians (Little, Brown)“ Gisleson writes with wit, warmth, and a spiritual devotion to books... Her search for purpose and connection amid chaos and loss permeates even the most heart-wrenching moments of The Futilitarians-- and it’s what turns the book from a meditation on reading to a celebration of being.” — Jason Heller, National Public Radio “Essential... this is a shattering and very important important book...one of the best books of this year.” — Dave Eggers “Truly great writing...Gisleson conjures the strange beauty of her world... An affecting memoir.” — Keziah Weir, ELLE “With beautiful writing, Gisleson effortlessly weaves existentialism around narrative, challenging and engaging readers with a seamless blend of theory and memoir. Writer and educator Gisleson’s first book-length work weighs heavy with life’s toughest questions and then instantaneously elevates the soul with hope, making a charming, captivating, and incredibly smart must-read.” — Melissa Norstedt, Booklist “Sets out a search for meaning in grand terms and resolves the search in the beauty of loving detail...Plus, spoiler, it ends in fireworks and a reading list you do not want to miss.” — Louise Erdrich “A beautiful book about things that matter-- love, death, grief, anger, regret, renewal, the life of the mind, the life of the heart, and the life of the world around you.” — Sam Lipsyte Anne Gisleson is the author of The Futilitarians: Our Year of Thinking, Drinking, Grieving and Reading (Little, Brown), a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the... Selected Listening http://annegisleson.com/Selected-Listening Mon, 16 Oct 2017 15:44:08 +0000 Anne Gisleson, Writer 221896 ANNE GISLESON The Futilitarians  Selected Writing  Selected Listening Press  Contact   Back Crybabies #83 with Susan Orlean and Sarah Thyre December 7th, 2017 The Bittersweet Life, Episode 181: EXISTENTIAL November 13th, 2017 WYPL Book Talk September 24th, 2017 WRBH Writer's Forum  September 7th, 2017 The Reading Life with Susan Larson WWNO August 22, 2017 ANNE GISLESON The Futilitarians  Selected Writing  Selected Listening Press  Contact   Back Crybabies #83 with Susan Orlean and Sarah... Contact http://annegisleson.com/Contact Tue, 01 Aug 2017 21:34:47 +0000 Anne Gisleson, Writer 200435 ANNE GISLESON The Futilitarians  Selected Writing  Selected Listening  Press  Contact  Back Salutations / Inquiries — agisleson@gmail.com ANNE GISLESON The Futilitarians  Selected Writing  Selected Listening  Press  Contact  Back Salutations /... The Futilitarians http://annegisleson.com/The-Futilitarians Tue, 01 Aug 2017 15:15:58 +0000 Anne Gisleson, Writer 200323 ANNE GISLESON The Futilitarians Selected Writing  Selected Listening  Press  Contact   Back <img width="400" height="555" width_o="400" height_o="555" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/10e0691e450b044c3d506216a998961d7553d951ae27dc4f9f0d08bb87ce3361/cover-futilitariansNew.png" data-mid="267164" border="0" /> A memoir of friendship and literature, chronicling a search for meaning and comfort in great books, and a beautiful path out of grief. Excerpt — All is Vanity Nearly everyone showed up on time, odd for a New Orleans social gathering. Friends parked and turned off headlights, or shackled their bikes to our old iron fence. The wooden porch collected and amplified their footsteps. The 7:30 convergence was rung in by the off-key bells of the church tower near the corner on Dauphine Street. A few years earlier, the church had changed its name to Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, in honor of a local priest who died tending to yellow fever victims after the Civil War. Although he was a near saint, in canonical limbo, the legitimacy of his alleged miracles had yet to be ratified by Vatican bureaucracy. The records agreed he was deeply beneficent, holy even, but was he magic? Wine bottles congregated on our living room’s low table, and bodies settled onto the couches and oversized pillows on the floor. Our project seemed to call for some good scotch, an elevated example of human production—the species proving its worth—and Brad and I had bought a bottle of single-malt Aberlour. The first meeting did not have any clear expectations, though, much less a definite agenda, so no one knew quite how to start. Drinks were poured and names were traded among the dozen of us. With the exception of my younger sister Susan, and Chris, whom I’d met during the dark years around my sisters’ deaths, the others were all people Brad and I befriended since we’d met each other about eight years ago. We knew them from different spheres in our lives—work, art, kids. In addition to Chris’s eclectic resume, we had a few writers/teachers, poet/musicians, a couple of visual artists, a construction manager and former journeyman plumber, and one psychology professor with a private practice on the side who'd long referred to himself as an “existential plumber…”  Praise for The Futilitarians — “The Futilitarians sets out a search for meaning in grand terms and solves the search in the beauty of loving detail. From suicide to set painting, lunch pies to Death Row, from decayed eternity to the complex rebirth of New Orleans, this book never loses the treasure of abiding doubt. Plus, spoiler, it ends in fireworks and a reading list you do not want to miss.”— LOUISE ERDICH, National Book Award–winning author of LaRose “This is a shattering and very important book—and will, if there is justice (and there must be justice), be considered one of the best books of this year. There is an ocean of hurt here, but Gisleson manages to sail through it and show us everything that’s beautiful about this sea of pain. If you love existential literature, or New Orleans, or your family, or are curious about the meaning of life, then you will find The Futilitarians to be an essential book.” — DAVE EGGERS, New York Times bestselling author of The Circle and What Is the What “After Katrina, New Orleanians became experts in resilience. Anne Gisleson has captured that spirit poignantly in The Futilitarians, which explores how we can find meaning in our lives by struggling back from tragedies. Whether as communities or as individuals, she shows, we do it by holding hands and moving forward together.” — WALTER ISAACSON, New York Times bestselling author of Steve Jobs and Einstein: His Life and Universe “This is a beautiful book about the things that matter—love, death, grief, anger, regret, renewal, the life of the mind, the life of the heart, and the life of the world round you. Anne Gisleson is a brave and gifted writer, with the wisdom to embrace empathy and connection, not to Mention intellectual curiosity, in an existence that can only ever be filled with uncertainty. I just wish I could join her reading club.” — SAM LIPSYTE , New York Timesbestselling author of The Ask “Boozy, brilliant, beautiful, tragic, and deeply affecting, The Futilitarians is my favorite memoir of the year.” — JAMI ATTENBERG, New York Timesbestselling author of All Grown Up “I absolutely loved The Futilitarians, a wonderful and profoundly moving personal memoir of loss and resilience, and an unforgettable tribute to the great good that comes from reading great books (and talking about them!). I underlined passages on just about every page, following with intense hope and desire every move made by Anne’s Existential Crisis Reading Group, a book group like none other. This book will move you to tears, to laughter, and to joy—and will leave you with renewed awe for all the unexpected gifts that being alive allows, including the special joy of finding a great book like The Futilitarians.” — NINA SANKOVITCH, author of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair ANNE GISLESON The Futilitarians Selected Writing  Selected Listening  Press  Contact   Back A memoir of friendship and... Press http://annegisleson.com/Press Tue, 01 Aug 2017 15:05:54 +0000 Anne Gisleson, Writer 200321 ANNE GISLESON The Futilitarians  Selected Writing  Selected Listening  Press Contact    Reviews for The Futilitarians NPRThe New York Times Book ReviewSan Francisco Chronicle Kirkus Reviews Publishers Weekly Book Page St. Louis Dispatch Misc. New Orleans Advocate Profile Macleans Interview ANNE GISLESON The Futilitarians  Selected Writing  Selected Listening  Press Contact    Reviews for The Futilitarians NPRThe New... Selected Writing http://annegisleson.com/Selected-Writing Tue, 01 Aug 2017 15:03:10 +0000 Anne Gisleson, Writer 200316 ANNE GISLESON The Futilitarians Selected Writing Selected Listening  Press  Contact   Back A Mardi Gras Like No Other Seeks to Bring New Orleans Together—From a Distance The Smithsonian Magazine, February 2020 Keeping the Devil Close Oxford American, Issue 105, Summer 2019 Bywater Faces Its Future Curbed, May 23, 2018 The Beautiful Hunt Oxford American, Issue 97, Summer 2017 Talismanic Objects (13) Hilowbrow, May 5th, 2017 An Existential Reading List for Your End Time’s CrisisLithub, August 21, 2017 New Orleans Spleen The Oxford American, Web Feature, Summer 2015 The Rib Room Okey-Panky / Electric Literature, 2016 The TransomThe Oxford American, Issue 88, Spring 2015 Flood ProtectionThe Oxford American, Issue 86, Fall 2014 Condolences from Death RowThe Oxford American, Issue 81, Summer 2013 Your Exhausted Heart The Oxford American, Issue 62, Fall 2008 ANNE GISLESON The Futilitarians Selected Writing Selected Listening  Press  Contact   Back A Mardi Gras Like No Other Seeks to... Anne Gileson http://annegisleson.com/Anne-Gileson Mon, 17 Aug 2015 23:34:03 +0000 Anne Gisleson, Writer 200309 ANNE GISLESON About The Futilitarians  Selected Writing  Selected Listening  Press  Contact ANNE GISLESON About The Futilitarians  Selected Writing  Selected Listening  Press  Contact