Star-studded New Yorker Festival caters to the magazine’s readers

Ten years ago, when the New Yorker was preparing for its 75th anniversary, Rhonda Sherman conceived an event that would bring together contemporary writers, artists, musicians, politicians, academics, and the general public. The New Yorker Festival, an annual three-day literary extravaganza, was the result.
“The vision for the New Yorker Festival had more to do with readers than with writers,” Sherman said. As a reader of and working for the publication, she realized that “being a ‘New Yorker reader’ had become a personality qualifier. These people were part of the same group, and I thought it would be great to celebrate and to find a reason to bring them all together.”

Indeed, each year the New Yorker Festival accomplishes just that, by featuring writers associated with the New Yorker—those who have been published in the fiction section and those who have been profiled—as well as notable members of the magazine’s staff. In the past, the festival has welcomed authors such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Chabon, Joyce Carol Oates, and Stephen King.

This year’s festival launches today and will continue until Sunday. Friday night is fiction night, and the events will feature readings by New Yorker fiction writers such as Junot Diaz and Mary Gaitskill. Five New Yorker writers will also tell stories about writing for the magazine. On Saturday morning, the festival will feature a special interview with Jhumpa Lahiri, conducted by Fiction Editor Deborah Treisman. Later in the day, there will be a panel discussion featuring author Annie Proulx, anchor Rachel Maddow, and filmmaker Tyler Perry. In the evening, actors Tilda Swinton and James Franco will be making appearances, as well as many other distinguished guests.

On Sunday, the festival will host a panel on the future of opera as well as a “Humor Revue” featuring the magazine’s humorists. Most of these humorists contribute to the “Shouts and Murmurs” section and, of course, its famous cartoons.

Also taking place on Sunday is “Tailing Tilley,” the city-wide scavenger hunt based upon 84 years of New Yorker history. Teams will go against each other in a race to search for New Yorker clues which will lead them to different places, with the aim of following Eustace Tilley around the city. The team with the most Tilley sightings will win the game and receive a prize. The game will begin at 11 a.m. at the Galway Hooker Pub on East 36th Street.

Each year, students are encouraged and invited to participate in the festival, and many do indeed attend. “A lot of people who are younger are drawn to the New Yorker through fiction. From its very beginnings, some of the greatest fiction writers were part of the New Yorker,” Sherman said. “Anyone who you can name has been published in the New Yorker. No other magazine is making such a commitment to fiction.”

But the festival is not catered to students specifically, or to any one demographic. “One of the most amazing things about the festival is its variety. It is not geared toward any one audience. You see audiences and they are always age-diverse,” Sherman said. “Writing is so interesting, and thinking is so interesting.”

Tickets will be available for 10% off today from 12-4 p.m. at the Cedar Lake Theatre (47 West 26th St.). For a full list of events, visit newyorker.com/festival/schedule.