Like Shaking Hands with God

In Like Shaking Hands with God, two distinguished writers—separated by age, race, upbringing, and education, but sharing common goals and aspirations—talk about the place where the lives they lead meet the art they practice. That these two writers happened to be Kurt Vonnegut and Lee Stringer made it a historic celebration.

The setting was a bookstore in New York City, the date Thursday, October 1, 1998. Before a crowd of several hundred, Vonnegut and Stinger took up the challenge of writing books that would make a difference and the concomitant challenge of living from day to day. As Vonnegut said afterward, "It was a magical evening."

A book for anyone interested in why the simple act of writing things down can be more important than the amount of memory in our computers.

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) was among the few grandmasters of twentieth-century American letters, one without whom the very term American literature would mean much less than it does now. Vonnegut’s other books from Seven Stories Press include God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian and the national hardcover and paperback bestseller A Man Without a Country.

Lee Stringer is the author of the acclaimed Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street, which chronicled his twelve years of homelessness in New York City. A former editor and columnist of Street News, his is also the author of Sleepaway School: A Memoir. He is at work on the forthcoming White People: Stories from the Suburbs.

Dan Simon is founder and publisher of Seven Stories Press, co-author of Run, Run, Run: The Lives of Abbie Hoffman; translator of Pascal Bonafoux's Van Gogh: Self Portraits; and co-editor of three volumes on Nelson Algren: Nonconformity, the critical edition of The Man with the Golden Arm; and Entrapment and Other Writings with Brooke Horvath.

Ross Klavan is a writer and performer in New York City. His critically acclaimed original screenplay Tigerland, based on his novel of the same name, was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award.

Art Shay is the author of Chicago's Nelson Algren. His photographs have graced the covers of Life and have been included in the museum exhibits around the world.