Amanda Stern
Amanda Stern is a fourth-generation native of Manhattan; raised without an accent. Her work has appeared in the New York Times; the New York Times Magazine; the New York Times Book Review; Filmmaker, The Believer, McSweeneys, Salon, Blackbook, St. Ann’s Review, Post Road, and others. Her personal essays have been included in several anthologies: Love is a Four-Letter Word, The Marijuana Chronicles, Women in Clothes, the anthology A Velocity of Being edited by Maria Popova, and her Believer interview with Laurie Anderson was included in Confidence, or the Appearance of Confidence: The Best of the Believer Music Interviews, 2014. Her first novel The Long Haul (Soft Skull Press) was published in 2003. Of her metaphors, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “they’re so fresh, they’re almost jarring.” Concurrent with the publication of The Long Haul, she launched The Happy Ending Music and Reading Series as an antidote to her anxiety. The series, designed around public risks, became a critical success, and its inventive model paved the way for the proliferation of music and reading series created in its wake. Happy Ending had permanent homes at Joe’s Pub in NYC and Symphony Space. She produced a special event in Israel with Etgar Keret, Colum McCann, and Gary Shteyngart. By the time the series ended officially in June 2018, Amanda had produced over 250 shows and welcomed 700 creative artists, from Nelly Reifler to Colson Whitehead. Drop in with Amanda on going from fears to fierce.
