Adam Langer '88 to read from novel

Sarah Goetz Staff Writer

Adam Langer ’88 began his writing career on the rooftops of Cushing House. He would drag his typewriter onto the roof, power cord running out the window, as he composed his first stories and plays while looking onto the vistas of the north side of campus. On Monday, Feb. 25, Langer, now a published author, will read from his latest novel, Ellington Boulevard, in Taylor Hall Room 203 at 5:30 p.m.

When he was a student, Langer showed some of the stories and other pieces of writing that he was working on to Professor of Italian John Ahern.

“Although this was…not a central vein in his life,” said Ahern of the political science major, “I encouraged him to continue.” Ahern was responsible for organizing the lecture.

Langer credits Vassar with providing him the occasion to write and explore creative mediums outside of the classroom.

“I happened to be very much of a self-motivated, self-starting writing person, so I had lots of opportunities,” he said in a phone interview. In his time at Vassar, Langer was able to write and direct his own plays, and he said that he was much helped by the encouragement and support of faculty.

After graduating from Vassar, Langer moved back to his hometown of Chicago. There, he worked for the next 10 years as an editor, playwright, theater director and journalist, writing for periodicals such as the Chicago Reader.

In 2000, Langer moved to New York City to pursue a fellowship that he had received from Columbia University’s National Arts Journalism Program. He initially planned to write a nonfiction book; instead, Langer made New York his permanent home, pursuing fiction writing while working as an editor of
Book Magazine.

“I always knew there were a few novels...in me, but I didn’t really know what they were going to be, or how I was going to approach them…so I had to write a lot that I ended up throwing out first,” Langer said.

Part of his novel-writing process was trying to get away from writing from his own vantage point. “The one thing I could never get away from in my writing was the use of the first-person,” he said. “I really wanted to…imagine other lives and to imagine how other people saw the world, but it was too much filtered through my own perspective.”

His debut novel, Crossing California, was published in 2004, and his sophomore effort, The Washington Story, was released just a year later. Ellington Boulevard is slated to be released in March, and is a testament to how Langer has worked through the writing process.

Langer currently writes full-time, working primarily on fiction. He is also working on a nonfiction memoir entitled My Father’s Bonus March.

Ahern was able to catch up with his former student this past summer. In January, when he learned that Langer’s third novel was set to be released, the idea of a reading at Vassar was hatched.
“When I was talking with [Langer], he pointed out that he’s never been back to Vassar since he graduated,” Ahern said. “It seemed to be that on the occasion of his third novel coming out, it was high time to do something,”

The event is sponsored by the Italian, French and Jewish Studies Departments. In addition to Ahern, Professors of French Mark Andrews and Elizabeth Cardonne-Arlyck, who also knew Langer as a student, supported the event.

“He’s a very good writer, but…it’s sort of like judging your children,” Ahern said of reviewing Langer’s works. “With students, you’re always on their side,” he said.