Erin Dorney (Provided photo)

SARANAC LAKE — Erin Dorney will present a chapter from her book-in-progress at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14 at the Saranac Lake Free Library. The event is free and open to the public.

Dorney received a Support for Artists grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to support her creative work. Fiscally sponsored by Pendragon Theatre, the award of $10,000 supported Dorney’s progress on her manuscript over the past year. Through New York state’s continued investment in arts and culture, NYSCA has awarded over $80 million since the spring of 2023 to over 1,500 artists and organizations across the state.

The book, a mixed-media memoir, centers around Dorney’s teenage fandom of the Goo Goo Dolls, a band hailing from Buffalo, New York, who gained notoriety with the 1998 breakout hit “Iris” off of the “City of Angels” film soundtrack. Each chapter contains scanned pages of the author’s teenage scrapbook, which will also be available for viewing at the event. Themes explored in the book include the way being a fan of something (art, music) allows us to see our own story more clearly; the ways art loved by women and girls is dismissed as unserious and uncool; and how the art we loved as children is a fundamental part of our becoming adults and artists ourselves.

Dorney is the author of “Yes I Am Human I Know You Were Wondering,” “The Usual Arteries,” “Grating, Darling, Full of Dirt,” “I Am Not Famous Anymore: Poems After Shia LaBeouf” and many zines. Her writing has been published in Autofocus, Tolka, HAD, and other literary journals. Her literary artwork and installations have been featured at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Hennepin Theatre Trust, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and Susquehanna Art Museum. She served as visiting writer at the Adirondack Center for Writing from 2022-2024.