Bestselling Author and MacCarthur Genius Karen Russell To Join St. Petersburg Stop
St. Petersburg, Fla. – (May 31, 2018) – Vice President Joe Biden has announced a highly-acclaimed group of moderators for the final nine dates of his 39-city American Promise Tour. Bestselling author and MacCarthur Genius Karen Russell will join the Vice President for the St. Petersburg stop of the tour taking place at Mahaffey Theater on June 4th.
Born and raised in Miami, Russell won the 2018 and 2012 National Magazine Award for fiction, and her first novel, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2011 and won the New York Public Library’s Young Lions award. She is a 2010 Cullman Center Fellow, a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2012 Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, and was a recipient of a MacArther “Genius” Grant in 2013. Russell is also the author of St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories, and Sleep Donation: A Novella. A new story collection is forthcoming from Knopf. She is the current Endowed Chair of the Texas State MFA Program.
During his American Promise Tour events, Vice President Biden has discussed the big political moments of his career, the life-altering choices he made, and the key traits that have helped him persevere through challenges. Guest moderators have included inspiring figures from the worlds of politics, entertainment, news, philanthropy, medicine, and literature, including: Jenna Bush Hager, Stephen Colbert, Melinda Gates, Dr. Atul Gawande, John Green, Jon Meacham, Wes Moore, Leslie Odom, Jr., Ambassador Samantha Power, Al Roker, George Saunders, Aaron Sorkin, Jesmyn Ward, Elaine Welteroth, and Constance Wu.
In November 2017, Flatiron Books published Vice President Biden’s #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, PROMISE ME, DAD: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose (on sale now, $27, Flatiron Books). PROMISE ME, DAD chronicles 2015, the most momentous and challenging year in Vice President Biden’s extraordinary life and career. For twelve months, the vice president balanced the twin imperatives of living up to his responsibilities to his country and his family while his son Beau battled brain cancer. Never far away was the insistent question of whether he should seek the presidency in 2016. Writing with poignancy and immediacy, Vice President Biden allows readers to feel the urgency of each moment, to experience the days when he felt unable to move forward, as well as the days when he felt like he could not afford to stop.
Tickets for the American Promise Tour at the Duke Energy Center for the Arts, Mahaffey Theater are available online at TheMahaffey.com.
Vice President Biden is represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which developed and will continue to oversee the American Promise Tour.
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The Duke Energy Center for the Arts – Mahaffey Theater
The Mahaffey Theater, under the management of Big3 Entertainment, is one of Tampa Bay’s top-rated performing arts venues. Home to the Florida Orchestra, The Mahaffey hosts top-quality national and international artists and performances – Broadway, pop, rock, comedy, dance, classical and interactive engagements and exhibitions.
Located in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg, the 2,031-seat cultural jewel boasts spectacular waterfront views and is located only minutes away from white sandy beaches and world-renowned museums. Additionally, the theater supports the highly successful Class Acts program, which enables school children to experience the performing arts through in-theater performances as well as in-school outreach and extension programs.
Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts
Founded as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in 2009, the Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts is dedicated to the success and future of The Mahaffey Theater and to the notion that through diverse programing and patron membership support, performing arts should be enjoyed by all of St. Petersburg’s citizens. It’s your theater!
The Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts is committed to supporting and presenting all genres of the performing arts at The Mahaffey Theater, funding arts education for school children through the Class Acts performance series and providing its member patrons with unequaled services, entertainment and cultural experiences.