Author Talk: Howard Fishman

Join us to hear author Howard Fishman discuss his book “To Anyone Who Ever Asks.”

The mysterious true story of Connie Converse—a mid-century New York City songwriter, singer, and composer whose haunting music never found broad recognition—and one writer’s quest to understand her life
When musician and New Yorker contributor Howard Fishman first heard Connie Converse’s voice on a recording, he was convinced she could not be real. Her recordings were too good not to know, and too out of place for the 1950s to make sense—a singer who seemed to bridge the gap between traditional Americana (country, blues, folk, jazz, and gospel), the Great American Songbook, and the singer-songwriter movement that exploded a decade later with Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. And then there was the bizarre legend about Connie Converse that had become the prevailing narrative of her life: that in 1974, at the age of fifty, she simply drove off one day and was never heard from again. Could this have been true? Who was Connie Converse, really?

Howard Fishman is an author, musician, composer, theatre-maker, and culture writer, based in Brooklyn, New York. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, and his writing has also been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, The Telegraph, Vanity Fair, ArtForum, The Village Voice, and The San Fransisco Chronicle. His book debut, TO ANYONE WHO EVER ASKS: THE LIFE, MUSIC, AND MYSTERY OF CONNIE CONVERSE, is out now from Dutton (Penguin Random House).

Books will be available for sale and signing following the event.