Independent Arts News Reporting 
Jennifer Egan © Pieter M. van Hattem
People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos March 19 Benefit features Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Jennifer Egan
People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos (P&S/GyC) is a nonprofit dedicated to opening doors to literature for new audiences. Participants include men and women who are incarcerated or engaged in re-entry, residents in halfway houses and homeless shelters, recent immigrants, and low-income seniors in residential settings. A fundraising Benefit is set for Sunday, March 19, 2023.
NEWSROOM POST: LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ
(LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ) – Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan, called one of the “most celebrated writers of our time” is the featured guest for this year’s Gala Benefit “Notable Words: An Afternoon with Jennifer Egan,” the primary yearly fundraiser presented by People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos to be held this year on Sunday, March 19, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. in the Mackay Lounge on the campus of the Princeton Theological Seminary, 64 Mercer Street, Princeton, NJ. Ticket prices start at $150.00 per person, including a signed copy of Ms. Egan’s latest novel The Candy House. The afternoon will include a talk and reception, followed by book signing. Tickets are available at this link www.peopleandstories.org/gala2023
“We are honored and thrilled to host Jennifer Egan this year,” Executive Director Cheyenne Wolf shared recently. “Thanks to the support of our Event Committee: Charlotte Friedman, Andrea Honore, Eva Mantell, Mimi Mead-Hagen, Susana Plotquin, Mimi Schwartz, Jane Scott and Debbie Watson plus the generous support of our extended Princeton-area community, this year’s Notable Words event promises to be one of our best yet.”
The Candy House was named a Top Ten Best Book of 2022 by The New York Times Book Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Slate
ABOUT JENNIFER EGAN:
Jennifer Egan’s the author of several novels and a short story collection. Her 2017 novel, Manhattan Beach, a New York Times bestseller, was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was chosen as New York City’s One Book One New York read. Her previous novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times book prize, and was named one of the best books of the decade by Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. Her new novel, The Candy House, a sibling to her A Visit From the Goon Squad, was published in April, 2022, and was recently named one of the New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2022, as well as one of President Obama’s favorite reads of 2022.
Also a journalist, she has written frequently in the New York Times Magazine. Her 2002 cover story on homeless children received the Carroll Kowal Journalism Award, and “The Bipolar Kid” received a 2009 NAMI Outstanding Media Award for Science and Health Reporting from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She recently completed a term as President of PEN America.
ABOUT PEOPLE & STORIES/GENTE Y CUENTOS:
People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos (P&S/GyC) is dedicated to opening doors to literature for new audiences. Through oral readings and rigorous discussions of enduring short stories, we invite participants to find fresh understandings of themselves, of others, and of the world.
Our programs, offered in English and Spanish, use oral readings and structured dialogues of complex short stories to invite participants to connect their own varied life experiences to the universal themes found in great literature. Now in its 50th year, our program methodology effectively removes obstacles to the rewards of reading, especially for adults and young adults who identify as not having the skill, confidence, or motivation to read independently.
Our participants include men and women who are incarcerated or engaged in re-entry, residents in halfway houses and homeless shelters, recent immigrants, and low-income seniors in residential settings. By and large, the individuals we serve are reading at or below a 5th grade level, have not completed high-school, or are economically disadvantaged. A critical bridge, People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos provides hope and skills for moving forward.
People and Stories/Gente y Cuentos is located at 295 Eggerts Crossing Road, Lawrenceville, NJ and is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. by appointment. Most programs are held at partner sites and other locations. For more information, call 609-882-4926 or visit www.peopleandstories.org
