A Lifetime of Writing: A Conversation with International Bestselling Author John Irving

You are in for a treat when you join us for an intimate conversation with John Irving as he chats about not only his most recent novel, The Last Chairlift, but also about his prolific body of work and a lifetime spent writing. Irving’s first novel was published when he was just twenty-six years old. He has gone on to be nominated for a National Book Award three times and won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Last Chairlift, Irving’s self-proclaimed final long novel, begins in Aspen, Colorado in 1941, when Rachel Brewster, a slalom skier, competes at the National Downhill and Slalom Championships. Little Ray, as she is called, finishes nowhere near the podium, but she manages to get pregnant. Back home, in New England, Little Ray becomes a ski instructor. Her son, Adam, grows up in a family that defies conventions and evades questions concerning the eventful past. Years later, looking for answers, Adam will go to Aspen. In the Hotel Jerome, where he was conceived, Adam will meet some ghosts; they aren’t the first or the last ghosts he sees. 

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About the Author: John Irving was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942. His first novel, Setting Free the Bears, was published in 1968, when he was twenty-six. 

Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times, winning in 1980 for The World According to Garp. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules. In 2013, he won a Lambda Literary Award for In One Person. Internationally renowned, his books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. A Prayer for Owen Meany is his best-selling novel, in every language.

John Irving is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. He lives in Toronto.