Author Talk: One Woman Show with Christine Coulson

A copy of the book is included with each ticket.

Author Christine Coulson has written a novel like no other—a story remarkably told through museum wall labels about women, ownership, value, and power. While working as Senior Writer at the Metropolitan Museum, Coulson dreamt of using the museum’s strict label format to describe people as intricate works of art. Out of that idea came ONE WOMAN SHOW, a sly, stylish novel written almost entirely in wall labels of 75 words or less. The novel imagines a privileged twentieth-century woman as an artifact—an object displayed, collected, evaluated, and critiqued.

With extraordinary precision and humor, Coulson introduces us to the force and foibles of protagonist Kitty Whitaker over the course of her century-long life. Kitty is defined by her potential for display and moved from collection to collection through multiple marriages. Hers is a tale—both timeless and modern—of constraint and transgression, told through exquisitely wrought texts brimming with wit, irony, and surprising emotion.

CHRISTINE COULSON spent twenty-five years working at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, including serving as speechwriter to the Director for eight years. In her final role as Senior Writer, she wrote all the wall labels for The Met’s new British Galleries. She left the museum in 2019 to write full time.