KGB Bar

Kaylie Jones is the author of five novels: A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, Speak Now, Celeste Ascending, As Soon As It Rains, and Quite the Other Way.Her latest book, a memoir, Lies My Mother Never Told Me, was published in August, 2009. Kaylie chairs the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, which awards $10,000 annually to an unpublished first novel. A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, based on Kaylie’s experiences growing up as the daughter of celebrated novelist James Jones (From Here To Eternity, The Thin Red Line, Whistle), was made into a Merchant-Ivory film starring Kris Kristofferson, Leelee Sobieski, Jesse Bradford, Barbara Hershey, and Isaac de Bankole. Kaylie is a graduate of Wesleyan University. She teaches in the MFA Writing and Literature program at Stony Brook Southampton and at the Wilkes University MFA program in professional writing.Born and raised in Paris, Kaylie lives in New York with her husband, daughter, and two mixed-breed mutts, Layla and Natalie.

Bob Knightly reports: I made my first sale, a pilot script for a TV series, The System, to Aaron Spelling TV Productions and NBC in 2002, which got me a couple trips to Hollywood on the arm to confer with a “Show Runner”; a couple bucks, no movie, no future, no regrets. Sold my first short story to editor Tim McLoughlin for Brooklyn Noir in 2004 because we were both in Kaylie Jones’ fiction class. Got another story in Manhattan Noir and Best American Mystery Stories 2007; Editor of Queens Noir 2008. Published a first novel, Bodies In Winter, from Severn House, 2009: an NYPD crime novel based on my past life as a police lieutenant. Currently, I’m a criminal defense lawyer in Albany, to which I fled in 2007, hoping to evade extradition.

Charles Salzberg is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in New York magazine, Esquire, and the New York Times.  He has written a number of non-fiction books, including From Set Shot to Slam Dunk and Soupy Sez: My Zany Life and Times, His latest novel, Swann’s Last Song, was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best PI Novel--he lost, but he’s contesting the decision, and asking for a recount.  He is a founding member of the New York Writers Workshop, where he teaches writing.  And he’d like to thank Kathleen Warnock for this opportunity to read at KGB, the only bar he frequents.

Renette Zimmerly is an award-winning art director who lives and works in New York City. Her short story, Throw Out Your Lifeline, won an award from Georgia College and was published in The Flannery O’Connor Bulletin. Her play, A Piece of Cake, was produced widely in the New York area.