Lee Gutkind

Lee Gutkind, whom Vanity Fair once called "the godfather behind creative nonfiction," presents his new book, My Last Eight Thousand Days: An American Male in His Seventies, in conversation with Steven Beschloss.

In My Last Eight Thousand Days, Gutkind turns his notepad and tape recorder inward, taking his skills as an immersion journalist to perform a deep dive on himself. Here, he offers a memoir of his life as a journalist, editor, husband, father, and Pittsburgh native, recounting not only his many triumphs, but also exposing his missteps and challenges. The overarching concern which frames these brave, often confessional stories, is his obsession and fascination with aging: his resistance, his fears—how aging provoked anxieties and unearthed long-rooted tensions—and how he came to accept, even enjoy, his mental and physical decline. Gutkind documents the realities of aging with his characteristically blunt, melancholic wit and authenticity that drive the quiet force of all his work.

This event is presented in partnership with Changing Hands Bookstore.