138. Reading the City
July 27 to August 3 + Booking Ahead
Welcome back to Reading the City, a weekly newsletter of bookish events in NYC.
An eclectic selection this week as we enter the slow summer season. With that in mind, I’ve decided to make like the French and take August off. I’ll pause paid subscriptions until I’m back in September, but the Booking Ahead section below includes some of the biggest launches of the month. I’m going to use the time to think about some new features for Reading the City, for which I’d love to hear any of your ideas! Wishing you all a joyful summer, take time if you can to rest and read and be well. And I’ll see you the other side!
Monday, July 27
LAUNCH | Signal Hill Issue Three
This is new to me, and bookish adjacent, but I love the idea. Signal Hill is an audio magazine (how is that different from a podcast?), and if you’re curious, like me, they’re having a party to celebrate their third issue, which includes radio docs, archival investigations, audio essays, new fiction, and a sonic tour.
Free; 7pm; Rodeo, 1134 President St, Brooklyn
Tuesday, July 28
LAUNCH | Valeria Luiselli: Beginning Middle End
Valeria Luiselli (Lost Children Archive) launches her new book, Beginning Middle End—a warm and poetic novel set on the island of Sicily during a summer of wild winds, volcanic rumbles, and unexpected tempests—with a masterclass lecture on storytelling, memory, and the ways writing allows us to record the erosion of time. Accompanied by a series of Polaroid photographs and field recordings, this unique event offers a rare glimpse into the ideas that shape a writer’s work.
$10; 7-8.15pm; The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, and livestreamed
PANEL | Queer Book Culture with LittlePuss Press and Hive Mind Books
Emily Zhou and Sasha Karbachinskiy of LittlePuss Press, Jules Wernersbach, co-founder of Hive Mind Books, and Professor of Gothic Literature and queer Studies Laura Westengard come together to discuss queer publishing, bookselling, and readership in Brooklyn.
Free, with RSVP; 6-7.30pm; Park Slope Library 431 6th Ave Brooklyn
POETRY | The Miraculous Season Selected Poems by V.R. “Bunny” Lang
Rosa Campbell celebrates the launch of The Miraculous Season Selected Poems by V.R. “Bunny” Lang, a revelatory new collection of work by the eccentric, thrilling American poet revived from oblivion, most of which are never-before-seen. She will be in conversation with Dorothea Lasky (Mother) and Jameson Fitzpatrick (Pricks in the Tapestry.
Free; 6-8pm; Rizzoli Books, 1133 Broadway, Manhattan
LAUNCH | Rowan Beaird: Tenderness
Rowan Beaird (The Divorcées) discusses her new book Tenderness—set in the 1970s during an island wedding, the bride has recently left a sinister cult that might still be trailing her—in conversation with Jason Diamond (John Hughes).
$10; 7-8pm; Strand Book Store, 828 Broadway 3rd Floor, Rare Book Room, Manhattan
Wednesday, July 29
READING | ’Pemi Aguda presents One Leg on Earth, featuring Lena Valencia
The featured author reading of One Story’s annual Summer Writers’ Conference is open to the public. ’Pemi Aguda discusses her debut novel One Leg on Earth—set in Lagos amidst a spate of mysterious drownings of pregnant women, the novel follows twenty-three-year-old Yosoye who, after discovering she herself is pregnant, finds herself on a collision course with an inexplicable force that is as seductive as it is deadly—in conversation by Lena Valencia (Mystery Lights).
Free; 6.30-8.30pm; Poet’s House, 10 River Terrace, Manhattan
PANEL | Speculative Fiction
Bryant Parks Reading Room hosts a lunchtime Speculative Fiction Author Panel with Clarence A. Haynes (The Broken Hearts Agency), Isabel J. Kim | 김지영 (Sublimation), Caitlin Rozakis (Startup Hell), and Leila Siddiqui (The Glowing Hours). Produced in partnership with Rob Cameron, author, educator, and lead organizer for Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers.
Free; 12.30pm–1.45pm; Bryant Park, Manhattan
LAUNCH | Meg Richardson: Paradise Pawn
Meg Richardson celebrates her debut novel Paradise Pawn about best friends, adolescent longing, and the Florida pawn shop that promises to make their dreams come true—if it doesn’t break them apart first. In conversation with Charlee Dyroff (Loneliness & Company) and Molly McGhee (Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind).
$10; 6.30-8pm; P&T Knitwear, 180 Orchard Street, Manhattan
SERIES | Letters & Sodas: LIC Reading Series
Hosted by lana schwartz, Letters & Sodas brings together standup comedy, humor pieces, fiction, and essay readings, this month featuring: Amanda Eisenberg (People are Talking); Ysabel Yates, Hunter Gardner, Heather Akumiah (of Limousine reading series and author of Bad Witches), Reid Pope, and Fareeha Khan.
$7.18; 7-8.30pm; The Greats of Craft LIC, 10-15 43rd Avenue, Queens
Thursday, July 30
LAUNCH | Samantha Paige Rosen: Living, Together
Samantha Paige Rosen launches Living, Together: Reimagining Community in the Age of Disconnection—an anthology featuring essays from 21 writers and organizers on chosen family, hacking adulthood, and other lessons communal living can teach us about the future of housing in America, featuring Kristen Arnett, Rhaina Cohen, Kim Stanley Robinson, and more. Contributors Alex Alberto (Entwined: Essays on Polyamory and Creating Home), Sarah Thankam Mathews (All This Could Be Different), and Mia Arias Tsang (Fragments of Wasted Devotion) join in conversation.
READING | Six Writers Walk Into a Bookstore
Celebrate the paperback launch of Maggie; or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar and the key role that friends play in our lives on and off the page with readings of original work, featuring Hannah Bae, Kukuwa Fraser, Mark Galarrita, Jen Lue, Randy Winston, and author Katie Yee.
$5, redeemable in store; 6.30pm; 3406 73rd Streer, Jackson Heights, Queens
SERIES | Roasting House Reading Series
An evening of poetry, fiction, and essays at Kos Kaffe with readings by: Malcolm Tariq (Heed the Hollow); Cecilia Beard; Gauri Awasthi (Mother Wound); Kai Mason; and Jaden Schapiro. Refreshments provided until they run out!
Free; 7-9pm; Kos Kaffe 251 5th Avenue Brooklyn
Sunday, August 2
WORKSHOP | An “I” for Detail: Crafting Your First Person Narrator
Join a writing workshop studying first person narratives led by Katie Yee (Maggie; or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar). Choosing the first person is a craft choice; here you’ll take a look at some of the great first person narratives—what works and why—and do a little free-writing with prompts to get to know your narrator better.
$53.49; 6.30-8pm; Liz’s Book Bar, 315 Smith Street, Brooklyn