City Planner: Wednesday 11/1

Ben Marcus & Heidi Julavits @ McNamara Alumni Center (U of M)

From today's A-List: "Ben Marcus and Heidi Julavits are the power couple of McSweeney's East, the Diana and Lionel Trilling of the post-punk, post-Boom, post-Me, post-snark generation. (The West Coast version, Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, boasts more subcult cred but less official power.) Marcus, author of the comic and inventive futuristic novel Notable American Women, runs Columbia's creative writing program and most recently edited an anthology of like-minded writers (Aimee Bender, George Saunders, Lydia Davis, et al.). Julavits co-edits McSweeney's house organ The Believer and famously penned its first-issue anti-snideness manifesto for book reviewers. Julavits's recently released third novel, The Uses of Enchantment, mixes gothic elements worthy of Joyce Carol Oates (repressed memories! A mysterious, possibly sexual abduction!) with an ironic undercutting of genre and method. Call it business as usual for a couple of writers whose business is anything but usual."

Free. 7:30 p.m.

Elsewhere

Blood Brothers @ Station 4
Hacienda Brothers @ Famous Dave's

Check out the A-List for all the week's best events.