Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Ford plans to pen a fifth novel in his Frank Bascombe series — Page Six has exclusively learned — which began with the 1986 breakout “The Sportswriter.”
Ford told us at the Paris Review Spring Revel that he already has notes for the new Bascombe book, as the latest in his acclaimed series that also includes “Independence Day” (1995), “The Lay of the Land” (2006), and “Let Me Be Frank With You” (2014).
At the Cipriani 42nd Street gala, Ford presented the Plimpton Prize for Fiction to Kelli Jo Ford (no relation), which awards a $10,000 prize to a writer appearing for the first time in the venerable lit journal.
“My first story was published [in the Paris Review] in 1974,” four years after he submitted it, he recalled. “I did not receive $10,000. I received $75. I bought a nice sport coat.”
Fran Lebowitz presented the Hadada Award to author Deborah Eisenberg, and lamented, “One of the most annoying aspects of this monumentally annoying era is the incessant and wholly unironic use of the word ‘art’ — by everyone all the time. It’s infuriating, it’s ridiculous.”
But she urged the crowd, “I would strongly suggest that you read [Eisenberg’s] stories. Not with the idea that you also have a story, that everyone has a story, that all stories deserve to be told. But rather with the idea that here is an artist who is not begging you to love her, but who is simply and brilliantly telling you the truth.”
The gala was chaired by Austin Hearst and hot fashion designer Gabriela Hearst.
Spotted were Wallace Shawn, Ken Auletta and Amanda “Binky” Urban, Terry McDonell, Gay Talese, Jeffrey Eugenides, Tara Westover, Coach designer Stuart Vevers and art dealer Lucas Zwirner.
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