6660 Manasota Key Rd.
Englewood
FL 34223

“Baseball Fiction: The Cactus League in Grapefruit Country”
with Hermitage Fellow Emily Nemens
Presented in partnership Off The Page Literary Festival
Friday, November 3 at 6pm
Hermitage Beach (entrance at 6660 Manasota Key Rd., Englewood, FL 34223
Register here.
Registration is required.
Join Hermitage Fellow and former Hermitage curator Emily Nemens as she reads from and discusses her acclaimed debut novel, The Cactus League. Anchored by an expert knowledge of baseball’s inner workings, the novel is a propulsive and deeply human story that captures the Arizona half of spring training (with many similarities and some notable differences to Florida’s own pre-season baseball). Nemens’ is a strange desert world that is both exciting and unforgiving, where the most crucial games are the ones played off the field. Before penning this New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, Nemens spent a decade as editor of notable literary publications, including The Paris Review, which won the American Society of Magazine Editors’ Award for Fiction under her tenure, and The Southern Review.
A returning Hermitage alumna and a past member of the Hermitage’s National Curatorial Council, Emily Nemens is a writer, illustrator, editor, and educator. Her debut novel The Cactus League was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in February 2020 and released in paperback by Picador in 2021. From 2018 to 2021, Nemens served as the editor of The Paris Review, the nation’s preeminent literary quarterly. During her tenure, the magazine won the 2020 American Society of Magazine Editors’ Award for Fiction, published two anthologies, and produced the second season of its acclaimed podcast. Previously, she coedited The Southern Review, a storied literary journal published at Louisiana State University. Stories published during her tenures at The Southern Review and The Paris Review were selected for the Pushcart Prize anthology, Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Prize anthology, and PEN America Best Debut Fiction. In 2021 she joined the staff of Stranger’s Guide as the sports/senior editor. Nemens grew up in Seattle and received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University, where she studied art history and studio art. She completed an MFA degree in fiction at Louisiana State University. As an illustrator, she’s collaborated with Harvey Pekar, published her work in The New Yorker, and her watercolor portraits of every woman in congress were featured across the web and on national TV. Her short stories have appeared in Blackbird (Tarumoto Prize winner), Esquire, n+1, The Iowa Review, Hobart, and The Gettysburg Review. She lives in New Jersey and remains a Mariners fan.
Photo Credit: James Emmerman