Books at Noon: Maira Kalman

Maira Kalman comes to Books at Noon to discuss her latest works, Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag and My Favorite Things.

Maira Kalman is the author/illustrator of 18 children's books including What Pete Ate, Fireboat and Looking at Lincoln. Her most recent children's book is about the design collection of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag. She has curated an exhibit for the reopening of the Museum in December 2014. She has created illustrated editions of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style and Michael Pollan's Food Rules. She worked with composer Nico Muhly to create The Elements of Style song cycle, first performed at the NYPL with the support of Paul Holdengraber in 2005. Both of her year-long online illustrated columns were compiled into books published by Penguin Press, The Principles of Uncertainty and And the Pursuit of Happiness. She is a contributor to The New Yorker,  Departures Magazine and other publications. A retrospective of her work originated at the ICA in Philadelphia, traveling to Los Angeles., San Franciscso, and ending at the Jewish Museum in New York City. She is represented by the Julie Saul Gallery NYC. If you ask her what she would like to do, it is to travel and iron in convents. The other thought is to perform in some capacity. Her most recent public performance was dancing the part of the duck in Isaac Mizrahi's production of Peter and the Wolf at the Guggenheim Museum. Wearing flippers and a tutu. Daunting.

Make the most of your lunch hour and come to The New York Public Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Wednesdays this fall for Books at Noon, a series of free midday conversations with acclaimed authors. Books at Noon events are standing room only and take place under the center arch in historic Astor Hall. An audience Q&A and book-signing will follow each half-hour program. 

For more information about Books at Noon, please visit nypl.org/booksatnoon.