Center for the literary arts in New York State
TALES OF A DYING MALL IN UPSTATE NEW YORK
Karin Lin-Greenberg
4:30 p.m. Thursday, February 22, 2024
Conversation / Q&A, Assembly Hall (2nd Floor), Campus Center
University at Albany, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany NY 12222 See map.
Karin Lin-Greenberg is the author of You Are Here (2023), a debut novel about the residents of a small Upstate New York town who must grapple with the impending closure of a once-bustling shopping mall.
The novel appeared on numerous “Best of” lists throughout 2023, including Elle magazine’s “Best and Most Anticipated Books of 2023,” the Washington Post’s “10 Noteworthy Books for May,” and Oprah Daily’s “Best Books You Might Have Missed in 2023.” Publishers Weekly called it a “remarkable study of ordinary people’s extraordinary inner lives.”
Lin-Greenberg’s 2013 story collection Faulty Predictions won the Flannery O'Connor Award in Short Fiction. She is an Associate Professor of English at Siena College and also teaches in Carlow University’s low-residency MFA in Creative Writing program.
Praise for You Are Here
"Lin-Greenberg’s masterful and understated debut novel is an engrossing, character-driven story that will delight fans of Liane Moriarty and Celeste Ng... At its heart, this is a story about our ties to and interactions with others and how our communities impact our actions, influence our aspirations, and shape our identities. Lin-Greenberg beautifully translates the lives of an ordinary group of people into an extraordinary, even triumphant novel. You Are Here is sure to be a book club favorite.— Patricia Smith, Booklist
"You Are Here is described as a being about 'regular people.' People looking for satisfying work,for feelings of genuine connection with others. For safety. For love. For love.
And because this is true,the novel also feels like an invitation to examine our own lives, to find moments of connection with these characters, but also to test ourselves. Are we being good spouses, parents, friends — neighbors? The answer will surely be complicated, embedded in myriad variables, not all of which show people at their best. Nevertheless, Ms. Lin-Greenberg’s beautifully written and radically sympathetic novel compels the reader to this kind of self-reflection. Among its achievements, “You Are Here” is a breathtaking depiction of a community — even one at the mall."
— Jeffrey Condran, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Cosponsored by the Honors College at UAlbany, the English Department’s Creative Writing Program and Young Writers Project, and the Writing & Critical Inquiry (WCI) Program.