Like Shaking Hands with God A Conversation about Writing

Kurt Vonnegut and Lee Stinger talk about the place where the lives they lead meet the art they practice.

KURT VONNEGUT was among the few grandmasters of twentieth-century American letters, one without whom the very term American literature would mean much less than it does now. He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on November 11, 1922, and died on April 11, 2007, in New York City. 


LEE STRINGER's journey from childhood homelessness in the ’60s, to adult homelessness in the ’80s, to his present career as a writer and lecturer, as told in Sleepaway School and Grand Central Winter, is one of the great odysseys of contemporary American life and letters. Stringer, the only board member of Project Renewal who is also a former patient of the facility, has demonstrated that writers are made, not born. He is the two-time recipient of the Washington Irving Award and, in 2005, a Lannan Foundation Residency. He is a former editor and columnist of Street News. His essays and articles have appeared in a variety of other publications, including The Nation, The New York Times, and Newsday. He lives in Mamaroneck, New York, where he also serves on the board of the Mamaroneck Public Libraries.