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Lethem Leaves Brooklyn
By
Jen Carlson
Published Oct 1, 2010
Modified Oct 1, 2010
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Oct 1, 2010
Modified Oct 1, 2010
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Brooklyn-born author Jonathan Lethem recently announced he'd be leaving the borough to serve at his new post: the Roy Edward Disney Professor in Creative Writing at Pomona College in California, a position once held by David Foster Wallace. Last week Lethem spoke about his departure at the New York Public Library (video below), and Marty Markowitz even commented upon it by telling the NY Post: "maybe he'll miss the Gowanus Canal and come back to us when he gets tired of La-La Land." Yep, we hear the first thing people miss when they leave Brooklyn is the raw-sewage flowing in that long-polluted body of water.
While the borough has often showed up in Lethem's novels, the New York Observer reports today that Queens is the setting for his next! At the aforementioned talk at the library, Lethem does mention that his mother was from Queens.
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jonathan lethem
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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