About Amazon, a Give-and-Take

   Amazon, beloved for its Kindle and its convenience. Amazon, loathed for its . . . Kindle and its convenience. With the online giant now moving into publishing in its own right and in a major way, imprints and all, the time is right to hear from a company mover and shaker, namely Larry Kirshbaum, newly appointed to lead Amazon Publishing in New York. He will be interviewed by Daniel Menaker, formerly a fiction editor at The New Yorker, on Wednesday at Stony Brook Southampton. Part of the M.F.A. program’s Writers Speak series, the free talk starts at 7 p.m. in Chancellors Hall’s Radio Lounge.

    Mr. Kirshbaum, a longtime industry insider, has been a literary agent and the head of the Time Warner Book Group. His interlocutor, Mr. Menaker, is the author, aptly, of “A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation.” A past editor in chief of Random House, he teaches at the college.