Event

Book Launch and Discussion: Don’t Look Back by Joe Calderone

Author Joe Calderone in conversation with Tom Robbins and Bill Cunningham for a discussion of Calderone's new novel, Don't Look Back.

Join us for a discussion of Joe Calderone‘s new historical novel – Don’t Look Back (Post Hill Press) , inspired by 9/11. The book follows the mother of an FDNY probie killed on 9/11  as she teams up with a tabloid reporter to to unearth the truth about what happened to the 343 FDNY firefighters who perished during the World Trade Center attack.

Calderone, author and longtime NYU adjunct faculty, will be joined by award-winning investigative reporter Tom Robbins (Village Voice/Daily News) and veteran City Hall expert Bill Cunningham who served in the Bloomberg administration after 9/11. The panel will take a look back at 9/11,  twenty-one years after the attack that altered America’s foreign policy, security protocols, and changed how we go about our daily lives. Joe Calderone will also discuss the transition from writing and reporting journalism to becoming a published novelist. Refreshments will be served.

RSVP HERE

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
*Attendees without an current NYU ID are considered campus visitors and are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and boosted (once eligible and by NYU’s deadline)—to have access to NYU facilities and in-person NYU-sponsored activities, including public events. Additional details on NYU’s COVID-19 Guidelines linked here.

SPEAKER BIOS

 

Joe Calderone is a long-time adjunct at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute where he teaches graduate-level investigative reporting. He worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for more than 25 years, including covering City Hall at New York Newsday and as Investigations Editor at the New York Daily News. His first novel, Don’t Look Back (Post Hill Press), has received a round of positive mentions and reviews from People magazine, Newsday, Dan’s Papers, The Herald newspapers, The Southampton Press, the Chief, The Irish Echo and the City & State newsletter. It also has been featured on 1010 WINS and WOR 710 (Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning) as part of their 9/11 anniversary coverage and on a number of podcasts.

 

Bill Cunningham, who served at City Hall right after 9/11 as Communications Director for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is a veteran government and political strategist, including for Senator Daniel P. Moynihan. He is the founder of advisory firm Cunningham Strategies. As Mayor Bloomberg’s Communications Director, Cunningham helped shape policy during the 9/11 recovery period as downtown struggled to recover from the attack. He oversaw media outreach of the Mayor’s Office as well as over 50 city agencies. He advised the Mayor on a broad range of subjects including policy, politics and communication strategies. Cunningham’s career in public service dates to 1975, when he served on the senior staff of Governors Hugh L. Carey and Mario M. Cuomo. He was a key operative in their election campaigns as well. Bill also worked as Chief of Staff for the late Senator Daniel P. Moynihan and managed his last campaign in 1994. In the private sector, Cunningham has been Senior Vice President for Public Policy for a major bank, and as a consultant, Bill has advised trade associations, major corporations, and professional service firms, and organized statewide and regional public information campaigns. An avid reader of history, biography and poetry, he holds a B.A. in Political Science from Brooklyn College and an M.P.A. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

 

Tom Robbins has been investigative journalist in residence at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY since February 2011. His series on violence in New York prisons, produced in collaboration with the Marshall Project and The New York Times, was named a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist for Investigative Reporting and won the 2016 Hillman Prize for Newspaper Journalism. The series included stories by Times reporters Michael Winerip and Michael Schwirtz. Robbins has been a columnist and staff writer at the Village Voice, the New York Daily News, and The New York Observer. His stories on political corruption and urban issues have been cited by Investigative Reporters and Editors, the New York Press Club, the Deadline Club, and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, which gave his political columns in the Voice its top award in both 2009 and 2010.

 

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Praise for Don’t Look Back (Post Hill Press)

Dan’s Papers called it a “riveting read…Joe tells the story with compelling realism…you will be riveted by the power of the families’ fight to bring the firefighters’ deaths the respect they deserve…”

“Calderone’s book performs a service to the city and its emergency responders, particularly the FDNY.”

People magazine selected it as a best ‘new in paperback,’ calling it “a suspenseful, eye-opening thriller about the firefighters who lost their lives on 9/11…”

Author Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down) says “the story never lets up” while Nick Pileggi (Wiseguy) calls it a “brilliantly suspenseful novel about 9/11…” And Tom Robbins (Mob Boss) calls it “…a vivid tale of people in search of a difficult truth.”