The Bryn Mawr Club of New York City

December 2006 E-Letter

Bryn Mawr Club of New York City Events on the Horizon

  • Gala Fundraising Party and Auction (April 2007)

Bryn Mawr Club of New York City DUES
Please contribute your tax-deductible annual dues to the Club before the end of 2006.

Bryn Mawr Connections

  • Ellen Kushner, ’77, reads from her book (December 5)
  • Michelle Valledares, ’85, reads from her book (December 12)

Bryn Mawr Connections on the Horizon

  • Bryn Mawr Book Club (January 18)

Seven Sisters Connections on the Horizon

  • An Exhibit through a Curator’s Eyes at the Grolier Club, Smith/Princeton Club Event (January 30)

Personals

  • Job Listing, Entry-Level Publishing
  • Alumnae Seeking Housing
    Sara Ehlers, ‘95
    Alison Inserra, ‘01

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Bryn Mawr Club of New York City Events on the Horizon

Save the Date!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
For the Next Gala Fundraising Party and Auction

The Bryn Mawr Club of New York City will be presenting another Enormous, Exciting Gala Auction Party in Spring 2007 to continue the Club’s fundraising efforts, including establishing a New York City Bookshop/Bookspace to support the purposes of the Club and the College. Because the 2005 Auction Gala was such a fundraising and community success, we want to maintain this momentum towards our goal of $350,000. We are now more than one-third of the way there, and call on all New York City area Mawrtyrs to help us to the next level and enjoy a wonderful party!

The 2007 Auction Gala will again be at the Cosmopolitan Club, 122 East 66th Street, New York City, in the lovely ballroom. The evening will include a cocktail party with ample nibbles, a live auction (featuring a distinguished Sotheby’s auctioneer!), a silent auction, and other entertainment.

In addition to saving the date, please scan your nooks and crannies for Donations for the Live and Silent Auctions! In 2005 we offered a wide selection of goods and services and we want to make the 2007 Auction even better. We are looking for items with a realistic value of at least $100 that people will compete to buy: the Auction Gala should be a place where people know they will find interesting and useful items. Please be generous and imaginative: nifty antiques, collectibles and accessories, exotic food and wine, vacation homes, event tickets, consulting services and other talents, and of course financial contributions are examples of the items we are hoping for. Donations are tax-deductible as provided by law.

To make a donation, please contact Tanya Doughty Olyphant, ’70, Auction Chair, at tolyphant@aol.com or 212 570 9885 for more information and a Donor Form. Volunteers have started making telephone calls for donations, and we already have promises of some very nice items!

Finally, please also let Tanya know whether you will be able to help with preparations for the event, beginning in January.

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DUES

The Bryn Mawr Club of New York City receives no financial support from the College or the Alumnae Association. We are entirely self-supporting and in fact exist to support the College. Please support the Club with your tax-deductable donation to support these communications and the many Club events keeping the Bryn Mawr community in New York City active, in touch and supporting Bryn Mawr College.

Please copy this section into a clean document, print it out, fill it in and return it to the address below:

Name: _________________________________________________Class:______

Address: _________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

Contribution: ____$25 ____ $50 ____ $75 ____ $100 ____Other

Please mail your contribution with this coupon to:

The Bryn Mawr Club of New York City
P.O. Box 7153
FDR Station
New York, NY 10150-7153

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Bryn Mawr Connections

Ellen Kushner Reads from Her Book, The Privilege of the Sword

Excerpt of review by Yoon Ha Lee on www.strangehorizons.com

Once, in a nameless city, in the poor and dangerous neighborhood known as Riverside, a swordsman and his lover were entangled in the aristocrats' power struggles. Their story was told in Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint, which introduced us to a world of wit and beauty mingled with malicious intent, where the allure of the sword is set against the hard reality of a hired swordsman's existence. The Privilege of the Sword (New York, NY; Bantam Spectra, 2006) returns to that world a generation later and views it through the eyes of those standing in the shadows of power.

Join Ellen as she reads from her new book as part of the New York Review of Science Fiction reading series, hosted by guest curator Amy Goldschlager. She will joined by fellow writer Naomi Novik, who will read from her Temeraire series.

WHAT: Reading by Ellen Kushner, '77, from her new book, The Privilege of the Sword
WHEN:  7:00 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
WHERE:  South Street Seaport Museum, Melville Gallery
213 Water Street
New York, NY 10038
SUGGESTED DONATION:  $5
INFORMATION:  http://www.hourwolf.com/nyrsf/

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Michelle Valladares, ’85, reads from her book Nortada, The North Wind

As you read Valladares’ Nortada, it will be good to read it as a book—because as the poems gather themselves through the book they gain poise and wisdom, intensity and mystery. Simplicity and abstraction, experience and beauty, speak wholeheartedly to one another, and to us.

-Jean Valentine, Winner of National Book Award 2004

Michelle Valladares is a lecturer in English at The City College of New York. She is a poet, essayist and filmmaker, whose work has been widely published. Nortada, The North Wind, her first collection of poems, was published by Global City Press in 2005. She lives in Brooklyn and is a contributing editor of Global City Review. Join Michelle as she reads poems from Nortada at the Perch Café in Park Slope as part of the Café’s Literary Tuesdays program.

WHAT: Reading by Michelle Valladares, ’85, from her book Nortada, The North Wind
WHEN:  December 12, 7:30 p.m.
WHERE:  Perch Literary Tuesdays
Perch Cafe
365 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
F/R Train to 4th Avene/9th Street (between 5th and 6th streets)
INFORMATION:  http://www.webdelsol.com/globalcityreview
www.THEPERCHCAFE.COM

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Bryn Mawr Connections on the Horizon

Bryn Mawr Book Club

Book Club will meet on January 18, to confirm or deny The Clumsiest People in Europe: Or, Mrs.Mortimer's Bad-Tempered Guide to the Victorian World by Todd Pruzan and Favell Lee Mortimer.

Excerpt from William Grimes’ Review, In Mrs. Mortimer's Best Guess, the Place Is Unspeakable, The New York Times, June 8, 2005:

“Planning a foreign trip? Wales might be nice. But unfortunately it is filled with Welsh people, who are "not very clean." Spain might look alluring, but the Spanish tend to be "cruel, and sullen and revengeful." Portugal perhaps? Tread cautiously." Some places look pretty at a distance which look very ugly when you come up to them—Lisbon is one of these places."

There is almost no incentive to step out the front door in the strange, cruel, wildly prejudiced guidebooks of Mrs. Favell Lee Mortimer, a tough-minded Victorian children's writer whose astonishing thoughts on foreign lands have been excerpted by Todd Pruzan in "The Clumsiest People in Europe." Spanning the globe, Mrs. Mortimer, in three volumes published between 1849 and 1854, delivered crisp, no-nonsense opinions on peoples and countries from Sweden to Bechuanaland, even though her own foreign travel, at that point, was limited to a brief childhood trip to Brussels and Paris."

WHAT: Dissection of The Clumsiest People in Europe: Or, Mrs.Mortimer's Bad-Tempered Guide to the Victorian World
WHEN:  Thursday, January 18
7:00 p.m.
WHERE:  Home of Jim Kafadar and Elizabeth Holloway
350 Bleecker Street, Apt 6E (ring buzzer no.35 if doorman is on break)
(between Charles and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10014
212 645 2737

The February selection is The Lake, the River & the Other Lake by Steve Amick, date TBA.

Even if you can't attend Bryn Mawr Book Club, reading suggestions are always welcome—just send me an email. Elizabeth Holloway, robinsonholloway@gmail.com

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Seven Sisters Connections on the Horizon

An Exhibit through a Curator’s Eyes
Smith Club of New York co-hosting with the Princeton Club of New York

Jan Carlson Oresman, Smith ’55, will discuss the prints being shown in “Hot Off the Press–Prints of 2006 from New York Printshops,” an exhibit she is curating for the Grolier Club. This event will be open to all Seven Sisters alumnae at the Smith Club’s non-membership rate.

WHAT: An Exhibit through a Curator’s Eyes at the Grolier, Smith/Princeton Club Event
WHEN:  6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 30
WHERE:  The Grolier Club
47 East 60th Street
New York, NY 10022
COST: $40 for talk and a wine reception

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Personals

From Celine Little, ’01:
A position will be open at Georges Borchardt, Inc., Literary Agency as assistant to the president, Georges Borchardt. This is an entry level position and will start on or a bit before January 2, 2007. Recent grads as well as those with one-two years publishing experience are welcome to apply. French is a major plus.

Responsibilities as Assistant Agent include:

  • Maintaining correspondence and working closely with authors and editors in both fiction and nonfiction
  • Reading, evaluating and submitting unpublished manuscripts to publishers for publication
  • Reading, evaluating and submitting stories and articles to magazines and literary journals
  • Keeping track of all submissions, deadlines, payments, etc.
  • Licensing permissions for reprint rights
  • General office administration (filing, answering the phone, etc.)
The position offers great experience in Publishing (Georges Borchardt is a legend in the industry and wonderful to work with) and comes with full benefits. The agency is comprised of six people and located on East 57th Street and Lexington Avenue. Georges is looking for someone organized, reliable and willing to stay for at least two years. If interested, please contact Celine by email, celine@gbagency.com, or by phone, 212 753 5785.

From Sara Ehlers, ’95:
Seeking sublet/share or house sitting in New York metro area beginning December or January. I am a quiet non-smoker with no pets. Please contact Sara on 646 797 0587.

From Alison Inserra, ’01:
I am relocating to New York and am looking for housing on the Upper or Lower East Side, in Brooklyn (maybe Williamsburg or Brooklyn Heights area, or thereabouts) and would also consider Roosevelt Island or Queens, anything with subway or bus access to the Bellevue Hospital area in Manhattan. My ideal rent would be around $1,000, and I am open to sharing. I will be starting work on December 18, but do have friends to stay with if I can move in only on January 1. Please contact Alison on allie0531@yahoo.com or by phone on 617 290 9249.

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THE BMC OF NYC E-LETTER
The Bryn Mawr Club of New York City E-letter is submitted to the Alumnae Association for distribution on the first business day of each month. Items for the e-letter should be submitted to the e-mail address below by the 27th of the prior month. If you have news to share with the New York City BMC alumnae community, if you would like to have information about an upcoming event included, or if you just have a question for the Club, please contact us at bmc_club_of_nyc@hotmail.com. For address changes, go to http://www.brynmawr.edu/alumnae/updates.htm.