Image Credit: Stephen-DeSantis

The Fisher Center and Live Arts Bard Present Neil Gaiman in Conversation with Audrey Niffenegger

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.— In the second in a regular series of conversations hosted by Bard professor Neil Gaiman, author and artist Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife) discusses time travel, Doctor Who, graveyards, taxidermy, graphic novels, pictures, books, and long-distance romance. The program takes place on Friday, October 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater. Tickets are $25 and can be ordered online at fishercenter.bard.edu or by calling the box office at 845-758-7900.

“This series provides Fisher Center audiences with a rare opportunity to join Neil Gaiman in conversation with leading artists and entrepreneurs in an intimate and informal setting,” said Gideon Lester, Bard’s director of theater programs. “After last season’s sold-out conversation with Art Spiegelman, we’re delighted to welcome best-selling writer and artist Audrey Niffenegger to campus. Like Professor Gaiman, Ms. Niffenegger transcends artistic boundaries, and is a brilliant and inspiring speaker.”

About the Artists

Neil Gaiman is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top 10 living postmodern writers and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. His most recent adult novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, is a No.1 New York Times bestseller; other adult works include Neverwhere, Stardust, Anansi Boys, and Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett); the award-winning Sandman series of graphic novels; and the short story collections Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things. His novels for younger readers include Coraline and The Graveyard Book, which was awarded the Newbery Medal, the Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel. 

His most recent book, Fortunately, the Milk (“the funniest work of literature since Catcher in the Rye”) has been on bestseller lists since publication. His work has been adapted for film, television, and radio, including Stardust (2007), directed by Matthew Vaughan, and the animated feature film Coraline (2009), which secured a BAFTA nomination for Best Animated Film and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category. In March 2013, BBC Radio broadcast a new six-episode production of Neverwhere, with a star-studded cast that includes James McAvoy, David Harewood, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Romola Garai. Gaiman has written and directed for film and television, and his 2011 episode of Doctor Who, “The Doctor’s Wife” won the Hugo, Ray Bradbury, and SFX awards. Make Good Art, the text of a commencement speech Gaiman delivered at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, was published in a volume designed by renowned artist Chip Kidd. Born in Hampshire, England, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, the musician Amanda Palmer, with whom he sometimes performs.

Audrey Niffenegger is a visual artist and writer. She lives in Chicago.

Niffenegger makes drawings, prints, photographs, and paintings. She specializes in making visual books, which she writes, illustrates, prints, and binds herself. These include The Three Incestuous Sisters and The Adventuress, published in trade editions by Harry N. Abrams (USA) and Jonathan Cape (UK) in 2005 and 2006. Her comic The Night Bookmobile was serialized in the London Guardian in 2008 and was published in book form by Abrams and Cape in 2010.

Niffenegger’s first novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife (MacAdam/Cage, 2003; Jonathan Cape, 2004) was a New York Times bestseller and received a British Book Award in 2005. It has been published in 36 languages. The Time Traveler’s Wife was adapted into a movie by New Line Cinema in 2009. Her Fearful Symmetry, was published by Scribner and Jonathan Cape in 2009. It was an international bestseller and received a favorable front-page review in the New York Times Book Review. She is in the process of adapting it for the screen.

Niffenegger helped to found the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. Her art has been exhibited at Printworks Gallery since 1986. Her work has been collected by the Newberry Library, National Museum for Women in the Arts, Houghton Library, Art Institute of Chicago, Library of Congress, Northwestern University, and the Rijksmuseeum Meermano in The Hague. She was given her first retrospective in June 2013 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC.

In 2013 her most recent book, Raven Girl, was adapted into a dance for the Royal Ballet in London by Wayne McGregor, resident choreographer. She has been collaborating on comics with Eddie Campbell, including Thursdays, Six to Eight p.m., which was published in the Guardian in May 2014. She is currently a professor in the Creative Writing Department of Columbia College and is a Ragdale Distinguished Fellow. She has also been a resident at Yaddo. She is working on her third novel, The Chinchilla Girl in Exile, and on a sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife.

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This event was last updated on 09-24-2014

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