Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan's five all-time favorite songs

Author/journalist Jennifer Egan, who won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for A Visit From the Goon Squad, writes with equal ease about punk rock, the ravages of time, the oddities of technology and, of course, the complexities of love. Goon Squad also has a strange focus on lists, and...

By Patricia Calhoun

October 22, 2013

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Author/journalist Jennifer Egan, who won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for A Visit From the Goon Squad, writes with equal ease about punk rock, the ravages of time, the oddities of technology and, of course, the complexities of love. Goon Squad also has a strange focus on lists, and in one section, Egan offers a PowerPoint list of "Great Rock and Roll Pauses" -- perhaps the only use of PowerPoint in a novel. (You can read that list, and learn the songs she didn't include, onEgan's website.) In advance of Egan's visit to Denver this week for a series of events with Lighthouse Writer's Workshop, we asked for her five all-time favorite pieces of music.

And they are...

Iggy Pop's "The Passenger" and "Lust for Life"

Patti Smith's "Horses"

Pink Floyd's Animals

Cat Power's "Sun"

Anything by The Who

Jennifer Egan's appearances in Denver this week start with "Inside the Writer's Studio With Jennifer Egan," from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, October 24, at L2 Arts, 1477 Columbine Street; there's a pre-studio dinner and reception at 5 p.m., and the VIP "Keep (the Fun Going) Dessert Reception" with Egan from 8:30 to 10 p.m. at Lighthouse, 1515 Race Street.

The next day, the Lighthouse Grotto will host "Writer's Studio Craft Talk With Jennifer Egan: A Matter of Character," from 10 a.m. to noon. For more information and tickets, visit www.lighthousewriters.org.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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