Hugo Literary Series: Jenny Offill, Laura Van Den Berg, Maged Zaher, and Dawn Cerny

This is it! THE LAST EVENT at the old Hugo House building. Bring a writerly friend or five to celebrate the life of Hugo House. After the show, feel free to stick around to have a drink and perhaps break into a spontaneous rendition of Auld Lang Syne.

Before we bid adieu, though, we have a stellar lineup of writers presenting new work: novelist Jenny Offill; fiction writer Laura van den Berg; and Egyptian-American poet, translator, and performer Maged Zaher. Visual artist Dawn Cerny will exhibit work. Plus, Hugo House will be covered in real writing on the wall from our May 7 party to celebrate the building.

Jenny Offill is a novelist, the coeditor of two anthologies of essays, and the author of several children’s books. Her second novel, the acclaimed Dept. of Speculation, was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by the New York Times Book Review.

Laura van den Berg’s first collection of stories, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, was a Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection and shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Award. Her second collection of stories, The Isle of Youth, won the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.

Maged Zaher is the author of Thank You for the Window Office, The Revolution Happened and You Didn’t Call Me, and Portrait for the Poet as an Engineer. His translations of contemporary Egyptian poetry have appeared in Jacket magazine and Banipal.

Dawn Cerny is a visual artist who works in a variety of mediums, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, and performance. Her projects have been shown at numerous venues, including On the Boards, Henry Art Gallery; Or Gallery in Vancouver, B.C.; Knowmoregames in Brooklyn, New York; and Night Gallery in Los Angeles, California. Cerny was born in Santa Barbara, California, and lives in Seattle, Washington.