JR Moehringer (pronounced Mo-Ringer) is a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. A 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner, Moehringer reads from his best-selling memoir The Tender Bar at The King’s English on Monday, Aug. 14 at 7 p.m.

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You grew up in Manhasset, the backdrop for The Great Gatsby. Could you relate to F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s portrayal of your surroundings?

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I found out when I was a young teen that I came from Gatsby’s milieu, and I read the book immediately, and loved it, and I’ve been reading it over and over, ever since.

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You would sometimes peek into other people’s living rooms to see how they lived. Why?

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Because I didn’t have a home, so I was fascinated by these glimpses into other homes.

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What comes to mind when you recall your childhood home?

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What my family called the Bicentennial Sofa, a monstrosity from Sears, upholstered in a hideous design: faces of the Founding Fathers, bald eagles, liberty bells. More than any item, the Bicentennial Sofa represented the overall ugliness and shabbiness of the house I grew up in.

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The only access you had to your father was listening to him as a deejay, or “The Voice,” on the radio. What was your fondest memory of listening to him?

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Listening to him was “exciting” at times because that was my father, after all, but I have no fond memories of The Voice, only a recollection of aching and longing.

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How did growing up in a bar inspire you to excel as a professional journalist?

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I learned in the bar to love storytelling, and journalism was the only way I could find after college to tell stories for money.