Welcome to Reading the City, a weekly newsletter of bookish events in and around NYC.
Mission statement
I try to be comprehensive in my coverage, featuring both new and established authors, and the curation is based on having a range of genres and locations, and events that are either noteworthy or unique.
Due to the sheer quantity of events happening each week (so many readings …), I don’t generally list events for cookbooks, children’s or YA, or the very academic/niche, unless it personally appeals or is a request from a subscriber.
I don’t tend to list book clubs; that could be a newsletter of its own. (Should I start that?)
I aim to link to the author’s books, website, or social pages when possible—but it’s just me, so person power around here is in short supply!
I’m a big believer in the power of the literary community to raise each other up, champion one another, and help make this an inclusive and welcoming space for all writers and readers. I am here for feedback or chats. Get in touch anytime!
A note on the logo
For me, the three pillars in the logo reflect how reading events and bookstores act as third spaces to support the literary community of the city and bring us together. They also represent the three pillars that inspire this newsletter—literature, culture, and community—and pay homage to the city’s many great institutions: the NYPL, the Morgan Library, the Brooklyn Museum, and so on.
The typography is also a wink to New York City. It’s based on the text in Andy Warhol’s early illustrated books and lithographs, which used his mother’s handwriting, and was later adapted into the Warhola font. (Read more of that story here and if you haven’t seen his cookbooks, check them out!)
Many thanks to graphic designer Áine Mullaly for thoughtfully transforming my ramblings into a real thing!
About me
I’m a Brooklyn-based writer, editor, and teacher, and the author of No Way Home: A Memoir of Life on the Run (St. Martin’s Press) and Amphibian (Ig). I’m here and here on Instagram.
I arrived in New York from London in 2014, knowing just three people. I carried a manuscript that I’d written alone in a Victorian outhouse at the end of my mother’s garden in Devon. My entire experience of the writerly life thus far was solitary—and pretty cold. Somehow I found my way to a very special place called the Oracle Club (RIP) in Long Island City, and there I met real life authors for the first time. We stayed up late talking craft, drinking gin, and playing records, or reading poetry and howling into the night. From there, this city gifted me a community, and through that community the practical and intellectual resources I needed to become an author myself. I hope this newsletter offers a small way to give back, shining a spotlight on other authors’ work, and on the reading series, bookshops, and events that give the book community here a home.
