NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Authors Ottessa Moshfegh and Susan Choi and actors John Turturro and Mary-Louise Parker will be among dozens of featured guests at a tribute in the late novelist's New Jersey hometown.
鈥淧hilip Roth Unbound鈥 鈥 a reference to Roth's novel 鈥淶uckerman Unbound鈥 鈥 will run in Newark the weekend of March 17-19, around the time Roth would have turned 90. The Pulitzer Prize-winner .
Presented by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, in collaboration with the Newark Public Library, 鈥淧hilip Roth Unbound鈥 will include a reading of his dystopian bestseller 鈥淭he Plot Against America,鈥 a preview of a stage adaptation of 鈥淪abbath's Theater,鈥 co-presented by Turturro and Ariel Levy, and debates on censorship and other issues Roth often contended with in his lifetime.
鈥淥ver the last 75 years, Philip Roth was one of the most singular and challenging voices in American fiction," NJPAC CEO John Schreiber said in a statement released Tuesday.
"And while the Newark of Roth鈥檚 youth has transformed, its essential qualities remain 鈥 innovation, creativity and grit. In presenting 鈥楶hilip Roth Unbound鈥 we have the opportunity to invite patrons into a unique and vibrant environment of discussion and examination, not only of a writer鈥檚 life and work, but of Newark and the nation as well,鈥 the statement said.
Highlights also include a Roth-centered bus tour of Newark; 鈥淪tand-up and Challah!,鈥 featuring readings of Roth's most comical writing; and 鈥淟etting the Repellent In: Philip Roth and the Art of Outrage,鈥 billed as 鈥渁 provocative panel on the cathartic power of discomfort.鈥
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press