An Evening with Fran Lebowitz

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Join The Center for An Evening with Fran Lebowitz at The Center Theater!

The evening’s event will begin with Fran Lebowitz in conversation with Meg Daly. Daly is a Jackson-raised writer, editor and longtime cultural journalist whose work spans regional and national publications. The conversational interview portion will be followed by an hour of presentation and audience question and answer.

Fran Lebowitz

In a cultural landscape filled with endless pundits and talking heads, Fran Lebowitz stands out as one of our most insightful social commentators.

Her essays and interviews offer her acerbic views on current events and the media – as well as pet peeves including tourists, baggage-claim areas, after-shave lotion, adults who roller skate, children who speak French, or anyone who is unduly tan. “The New York Times Book Review” calls Lebowitz an “important humorist in the classic tradition.” Purveyor of urban cool, Lebowitz is a cultural satirist whom many call the heir to Dorothy Parker.

Lebowitz on special interest groups: “Special-interest publications should realize that if they are attracting enough advertising and readers to make a profit, the interest is not so special.”

Lebowitz on frankness: “Spilling your guts is exactly as charming as it sounds.”

Lebowitz on herself: “Success didn’t spoil me, I’ve always been insufferable.”

This is Lebowitz off the cuff. Her writing — pointed, taut, and economical — is equally forthright, irascible, and unapologetically opinionated.

Lebowitz worked odd jobs, such as taxi driving, belt peddling, and apartment cleaning (“with a small specialty in Venetian blinds”), before being hired by Andy Warhol as a columnist for “Interview.” That was followed by a stint at “Mademoiselle”. Her first book, a collection of essays titled “Metropolitan Life”, was a bestseller, as was a second collection, “Social Studies.” By turns ironic, facetious, deadpan, sarcastic, wry, wisecracking, and waggish, Lebowitz’s prose is wickedly entertaining. Her two books are collected in “The Fran Lebowitz Reader,” with a new preface by the author. “The Fran Lebowitz Reader” has been published in nine languages including French, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. In 2021 it was published for the first time in the United Kingdom and became a bestseller. Lebowitz is also the author of the children’s book, “Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas.”

Lebowitz was named to “Vanity Fair’s” International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 2008. She remains a style icon. Lebowitz lives in New York City, as she does not believe that she would be allowed to live anywhere else.