CHRIS WARE & ZADIE SMITH

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Chris Ware’s graphic novel Building Stories is a compilation of narratives about the inhabitants of a Chicago apartment building. Without a semblance of beginning or end, Ware’s stories illustrate bits of life that are heavy with allusions to the nature of American society and the human condition. Many credit Ware with ushering the graphic medium into the realm of “serious literature,” and few others have been as quick to pick up on this literary talent as Zadie Smith, who included Ware in her anthology of short stories, The Book of Other People.

Following the release of Ware’s Building Stories and Smith’s newest novel, NW—an exploration of a set of characters in a London neighborhood—the two will come together on LIVE’s stage to discuss the role of space and place in their own works.