New York, NY (April 20, 2011) – Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan, fellow Yaddo writer Kevin Wilson, and acclaimed singer and songwriter Aimee Mann will headline the May 24th Yaddo New York City Benefit at Tribeca Rooftop.

Aimee Mann

Mann, celebrated for her clever, literate, and dryly witty takes on emotional sabotage and self-destruction, has enjoyed a highly successful solo career after bursting onto the scene in the 1980s with MTV favorite 'Til Tuesday. Considered among the best of contemporary songwriters, she is known for pairing highly introspective poetry with soaring, infectious melodies. She was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and three Grammys for the soundtrack to the film Magnolia. Currently, Mann is working on her eighth solo album and collaborating with Paul Bryan on a new musical based on her concept album The Forgotten Arm.

Jennifer Egan

Egan will read from her novel A Visit From the Goon Squad, winner of both this year’s Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Egan experiments with format in the book, including a section formatted like a PowerPoint presentation. She also is the author of The Invisible Circus, which was released as a feature film by Fine Line in 2001, Emerald City and Other Stories, Look at Me, and the bestselling The Keep. Also a journalist, Egan writes frequently for The New York Times Magazine.

Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for his short story collection Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, Wilson was born, raised, and still lives Tennessee. His writing has appeared in Ploughshares, One Story,The New York Tmes Magazine, and Oxford American, among other publications. His work has been included four times in New Stories from the South: This Year's Best Anthology. He currently teaches fiction writing at the University of the South and helps run the Sewanee Writers' Conference. His debut novel, The Fang Family, is due for publication in August.

This program is being curated by Amanda Stern and will launch a new partnership between Yaddo and Stern and her “Happy Ending Music and Reading Series," which has been heralded by The New York Times as “helping to keep downtown New York alive.” The joint venture will create opportunities for Yaddo to recognize its artists in New York City through an ongoing schedule of live performances at the Public Theater’s Joe’s Pub, with the first show scheduled for June 8.

The Benefit Committee includes Noah Baumbach, Joel Conarroe, Susan Cheever, Elizabeth Gaffney, Peter C. Gould, Julie Gross, Daron Hagen, Mary-Beth Hughes, Harold Reed, Jason Reitman, Genie and Don Rice, Elaina Richardson, Jonathan Santlofer, James Siena, Benjamin Taylor, Barbara Toll, Margo Viscusi, and Patricia Volk.

The Yaddo 2011 New York City Benefit will be held Tuesday, May 24th, at Tribeca Rooftop. The festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails. Dinner and the performances will start at 7:30 p.m. Individual reservations are $350 to $2,500; tables are $5,000 to $25,000. To purchase reservations online now, click here for a link to a secure page.

For additional information, contact Steve Dennin (sdennin@yaddo.org or 212.307.7685) or Jennifer Godlewski (jgodleswki@yaddo.org or 212.307.7685).