Author Panel: Memoir

Admired and best-selling authors offer advice and discuss their latest books. 

Memoir

Stan Herman, Uncross Your Legs: A Life in Fashion

Ann Leary, I've Tried Being Nice: Essays

Geoffrey Mak, Mean Boys: A Personal History

Hosted by Ilana Levine, Little Known Facts with Ilana Levine

Stan Herman is a clothing designer, activist, and one of the leading figures in the world of fashion. As head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America for over 16 years, he not only ushered in a period of unprecedented growth for the CFDA but also helped to make New York City the epicenter of the fashion world that it is today. He has designed some of the most recognizable corporate uniforms for Fed-Ex, JetBlue, and countless other companies. Uncross Your Legs is his first book.

Ann Leary is the New York Times bestselling author of a memoir and four novels including The Good House. Her work has been translated into eighteen languages, and she has written for The New York Times, Ploughshares, NPR, Redbook, and Real Simple, among other publications. Her essay, “Rallying to Keep the Game Alive,” was adapted for Prime Video’s television series, Modern Love. Her novel The Good House was adapted as a motion picture starring Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline. She lives with her husband in New York.

Geoffrey Mak is a queer Chinese American writer whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Guardian, Artforum, The Nation, Art in America, Interview, Spike, Guernica, Highsnobiety, and other publications. He is cofounder of the reading and performance series Writing on Raving. Mak holds an MA in Cultural Reporting and Criticism from NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He lives in Brooklyn.

As an actress, Ilana Levine has performed on stage and screen to critical acclaim. On Broadway, Ilana is best known to musical theater fans for her comedic turn as "Lucy Van Pelt" in the Broadway revival of, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown. Ilana also starred in the Broadway productions of Jake's Women, Wrong Mountain and The Last Night Of Ballyhoo.  She has performed on the Tony Awards. Her ability to portray characters with raw honesty, humor, and pathos, has sustained her career as an actress for over 25 years.  She first appeared on the scene in the HBO series Tanner ’88 directed by Robert Altman and quickly was plucked by Vanity Fair journalist James Wolcott as an “up and comer to watch.”  Seinfeld fans recognize her from the infamous episode "The Contest."  She has appeared in many television shows and films including Divorce, Law and Order, Tanner on Tanner, Damages, The Job, Cashmere Mafia, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Kissing Jessica Stein, Gigantic, Ira and Abby, Failure to Launch, The Nanny Diaries, Friends With Kids and Five Flights Up. As a voice over artist she has done commercials and audio books. For the past three years Ilana has been cited as a “Twitter Influencer To Follow”.  She resides in Brooklyn, New York  with her husband, actor Dominic Fumusa, her two children, and their dog, Lola.