Journalists and authors Stephen Kurczy and Dan Wakin will join us to discuss their nonfiction books and the craft of narrative journalism. Kurczy, who teaches at SUNY Plattsburgh, will talk about The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence (HarperCollins, 2021), his immersive exploration of life inside America’s National Radio Quiet Zone—a place where cell phones and Wi-Fi are restricted in order to protect the world’s largest radio telescope and how residents navigate the challenges and paradoxes of a technology-free existence.
Wakin will share insights from The Man with the Sawed-Off Leg and Other Tales of a New York City Block (Arcade, 2018), his vivid history of seven historic Upper West Side townhouses and the remarkable cast of characters—from industrialists and entertainers to gangsters—who passed through them over the first half of the twentieth century.
Beyond their books, Kurczy and Wakin will reflect on their professional relationship, including Kurczy’s experience writing stories for the New York Times where Wakin is a seasoned reporter and editor. Kurczy played a key role in the Times’s series on the victims of the pandemic, Those We’ve Lost, which Wakin edited.