Cancelled: Adrienne Miller: In the Land of Men

Please note: this event has been cancelled.

Adrienne Miller discusses her new memoir, In the Land of Men, with Dave Eggers.

Praise for In the Land of Men

“Adrienne Miller did not merely find herself in the midst of a bright, innovative, challenging, unforgettable moment in literary culture: she made it happen. It was easy to miss that then, given all the attention paid to the brilliant writers, mostly men, that she discovered, nurtured, and endured. But now, with ferocious humor and honesty she conjures once more that Narnia-like world of books before blogs, magazines before the internet—capturing all its giddy verve, and all its frank injustices with her own unmatchable taste and wit at the dead center, where it always belonged.”— John Hodgman, author of Medallion Status

“In The Land of Men is about being the only woman in the room. But, beyond that, it’s about the magic of rooms themselves. It’s a revisiting of life before the age of ubiquitous screens, when we shared physical space—sometimes uncomfortably and sometimes ecstatically—with our heroes and our nemeses alike. I was thrilled to make the trip.”— Meghan Daum, author of The Problem with Everything: My Journey Through The New Culture Wars
“Adrienne Miller’s voice is lucid and remorseful, and she’s brought us a beautiful, painful book, a tender dissection of elusive subjects up to and including the passage of time and youth itself.”— Jonathan Lethem

“An incredible guide to a ridiculous era and its outrages. Many will praise Miller’s ability to bring a time and place to life, but I would also like to add that this book is very, very funny.”— Gary Shteyngart, author of Lake Success

About In the Land of Men

A fiercely personal memoir about coming of age in the male-dominated literary world of the nineties, becoming the first female literary editor of Esquire, and Miller’s personal and working relationship with David Foster Wallace

A naive and idealistic twenty-two-year-old from the Midwest, Adrienne Miller got her lucky break when she was hired as an editorial assistant at GQ magazine in the mid-nineties. Even if its sensibilities were manifestly mid-century—the martinis, powerful male egos, and unquestioned authority of kings—GQ still seemed the red-hot center of the literary world. It was there that Miller began learning how to survive in a man’s world. Three years later, she forged her own path, becoming the first woman to take on the role of literary editor of Esquire, home to the male writers who had defined manhood itself— Hemingway, Mailer, and Carver. Up against this old world, she would soon discover that it wanted nothing to do with a “mere girl.”

But this was also a unique moment in history that saw the rise of a new literary movement, as exemplified by McSweeney’s and the work of David Foster Wallace. A decade older than Miller, the mercurial Wallace would become the defining voice of a generation and the fiction writer she would work with most. He was her closest friend, confidant—and antagonist. Their intellectual and artistic exchange grew into a highly charged professional and personal relationship between the most prominent male writer of the era and a young woman still finding her voice.

This memoir—a rich, dazzling story of power, ambition, and identity—ultimately asks the question “How does a young woman fit into this male culture and at what cost?” With great wit and deep intelligence, Miller presents an inspiring and moving portrayal of a young woman’s education in a land of men.