Reading the City
May 20 to 26
Welcome back to Reading the City, a weekly newsletter of bookish events in and around NYC.
Pink is clearly the hot book cover color of the moment with the above book launches from Kimberly King Parsons, Thomas Grattan, and Anna Dorn, all reading this week. We also have the awesome sounding Generation Women storytelling event at Joe’s Pub, the NEA Big Read kicking off at the Center for Fiction, and, this weekend, Brooklyn Poets’ Poetry Festival. Enjoy!
As ever, send feedback, send help, send events I should have on my radar, say hi! And please share the love with your bookish friends.
Monday, May 20
Story/Teller Arts: The Hours with The Metropolitan Opera and Michael Cunningham
In quite a line-up, the Center for Fiction partners with The Metropolitan Opera to celebrate The Hours, which returns to the stage this May after its sold-out run last season. An adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, following three women across different decades who are all impacted by Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Cunningham is joined by playwright Greg Pierce for a conversation about the process of adapting the book into an opera, along with cast member, mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti. Moderating the discussion is Woolf scholar Anne Fernald (Virginia Woolf: Feminism and the Reader).
$10; 7pm; The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, and livestreamed
Hari Kunzru presents Blue Ruin
Hari Kunzru (Red Pill) reads from Blue Ruin—a profound and enthralling novel about beauty and power, capital, art and those who devote their lives to creating it—in conversation with Adam Dalva.
$5 for RSVP, redeemable in-store; 7pm; McNally Jackson Seaport, 4 Fulton St, New York
Robin Steinberg: The Courage of Compassion
Join Robin Steinberg, founder of The Bail Project, in conversation with Gilbert King, Pulitzer prizewinning author of Devil in the Grove, about public defense, justice, and her book The Courage of Compassion, in an event moderated by Wes Caines, interim director of The Bronx Defenders.
Free; 6-8pm; Housing Works Bookstore, 126 Crosby Street, New York
Tuesday, May 21
Generation Women
Love this: Generation Women is a multigenerational storytelling night that invites a woman or non-binary performer in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s+ to share an original true story on a theme. This event, themed “Bridging the Divide: Stories of Unexpected Connections,” brings together Aarushi Agni, Mandy Velez Tatti, Andrea Coleman, Lisa Dordal (Next Time You Come Home), Michele Herman (Save the Village), and Helen Benedict (The Good Deed). Hosted by Georgia Clark.
$35; doors, 6pm; Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, New York
CBH Talk | Natalie Foster and Tressie McMillan Cottom Discuss The Guarantee
The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy asks us to imagine an America where housing, health care, a college education, dignified work, family care, an inheritance, and an income floor are guaranteed by our government for everyone. Join author Natalie Foster, the cofounder of the Economic Security Project, and New York Times columnist and professor Tressie McMillan Cottom for a discussion.
Free; 6.30-8pm; Center for Brooklyn History, 128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn
Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn with Forever Magazine
Anna Dorn (Vagablonde) will read from her latest novel Perfume and Pain—a hilarious nod to 1950s lesbian pulp fiction in which a controversial LA author attempts to revive her career and finally find true love—accompanied by readers Madeleine Cash, Anika Levy, Sophie Kemp, and Sarah Fonseca. Marissa Zappas will be providing samples and discount codes for her fragrance “Maggie the Cat is Alive, I’m Alive.” This event is cohosted by Forever Magazine.
Free; 7-9pm; Powerhouse Arena, 28 Adams Street, Brooklyn
Alan Grostephan: The Banana Wars
Alan Grostephan (Bogotá) reads from The Banana Wars, the winner of the Dzanc Prize for Fiction, a historical novel based on the 1990 violent strike at banana plantations in Urabá, Colombia, and the following period of conflict, involving both right-wing paramilitaries and the US government. He’s joined in conversation by Jen Beagin (Pretend I’m Dead).
$10, redeemable in-store; 7-8pm; Books Are Magic Montague, 122 Montague Street, Brooklyn, and livestreamed free
NEA Big Read: Old Tales Made New, Heroes Made Monsters, Monsters Made Heroines
Kicking off the 2024 National Endowment of the Arts Big Read initiative, The Center for Fiction welcomes Orange Prize-winning author Madeline Miller (joining remotely) to celebrate her novel Circe—masterfully reframing Greek mythology to turn its titular witch into a compelling heroine—joined by Maria Dahvana Headley (Beowulf) and Rachel Lyon (Fruit of the Dead) to discuss the power of retelling ancient stories for new audiences and how it can return humanity to characters that are stripped of it.
Free; 7pm; The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, and livestreamed
Brooklyn Books & Booze
Brooklyn Books & Booze spotlights authors from different genres, curated by author and journalist Randee Dawn. This month, readers include: Nicholas Kaufmann, Matthew Kressel, M.M. DeVoe, and Christina Cooke (Broughtupsy).
Free; 7pm; Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room, 86 34th Street, Brooklyn
The Palace Reading Series
Hosted by Rita Puskas and Marisa Cadena at the Greenpoint Palace, with drink specials all night, this month features Bud Smith (Teenagers), Jake Maynard (Slime Line), Steve Anwyll (Welfare), and Dylan Smith.
Free; 7-9pm; The Greenpoint Palace, 206 Nassau Avenue, Brooklyn
Andrew Blauner: On the Couch
Editor Andrew Blauner presents his latest anthology On the Couch: Writers Analyze Freud with contributors Adam Gopnik and Phillip Lopate.
Free; 6-7.30pm; The Corner Bookstore, 1313 Madison Avenue, New York
Wednesday, May 22
Ditmas Lit
Hosted by Lena Valencia and Sarah Bridgins, this month Ditmas Lit features (A Kind of Refuge), Matthew Daddona (House of Sound), Kyle Carrero Lopez (Muscle Memory), and Zito Madu.
Free, with RSVP; doors 7.15pm, readings 8pm; Urbane Arts Club, 1016 Beverley Rd, Brooklyn
Claire Messud: This Strange Eventful History
Claire Messud (The Emperor’s Children) discusses her latest work This Strange Eventful History—a decades-long family saga, telling the story of the Cassars, a family of pied-noirs or Algerian-born French people, inspired by her own family history—in conversation with Jennifer Egan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad.
$10; 7pm; The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, and livestreamed
Tom Steyer with David Wallace-Wells: Winning the Climate War
The investor and climate strategist, Tom Steyer, shares his unique and unvarnished perspective on how each of us can fight climate change, as outlined in Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We’ll Win the Climate War, in discussion with The New York Times’ David Wallace-Wells.
$28, including book; 7-8pm; The New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 42nd Street & 5th Avenue, New York
Kimberly King Parsons: We Were the Universe
Kimberly King Parsons (Black Light) launches We Were the Universe—a young mother, in denial after the death of her sister, navigates the dizzying landscapes of desire, guilt, and grief in this darkly comic novel—in conversation with Chloé Cooper Jones (Easy Beauty).
$10, redeemable in-store; 7-8pm; Books Are Magic Montague, 122 Montague Street, Brooklyn, and livestreamed free
Thursday, May 23
Gabriella Burnham: Wait
Gabriella Burnham (It Is Wood, It Is Stone) celebrates her new coming-of-age novel, Wait, about a young woman who reunites with her teenage sister in their childhood home on Nantucket Island after their mother disappears, in conversation with cellist, performance artist, and writer Ethan Philbrick.
Free; 8-9pm; Book Club Bar, 197 East 3rd Street, New York
Thomas Grattan: In Tongues
Thomas Grattan's new novel, In Tongues, is a lush novel about family and art, sex and class, and the terror of self-discovery. He is joined in conversation by Zain Khalid (Brother Alive).
Free; 7.30pm; Greenlight bookstore, 686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
Friday, May 24
Brooklyn Poets Poetry Festival
At the second annual Brooklyn Poets Poetry Festival, spend your mornings exploring the creative process and writing new material in generative workshops, and in the afternoons, listen to readings by the day's instructors, engage in craft talks with acclaimed poets and listen to panels on a variety of topics. In the evenings, participants can read from their own work during open mics and listen to readings from the day's panelists and other poets in our community. Featured poets include Marie Howe, Dorothea Lasky, Victoria Chang, and Diannely Antigua. It also kicks off with a free Local Indie Bookfair & Readings on Thursday 23.
From $145 for a single day pass; 8.30am-9.30pm, May 24 to 26; 144 Montague Street, Brooklyn, and livestreamed
Fiona Warnick: The Skunks
Fiona Warnick launches The Skunks—reminiscent of Elif Batuman and Sally Rooney, this precise and tender debut captures the formative moments of a young woman’s life, from the slow burn of a new crush to the swish of a skunk’s tail—in conversation with Allegra Hyde (The Last Catastrophe).
$10, redeemable in-store; 7-8pm; Books Are Magic Montague, 122 Montague Street, Brooklyn, and livestreamed free
Sunday, May 26
Club Wonder
A new one for this newsletter: Wonder Press host Club Wonder, kicking off a summer of love and poetry, with readings from Tal Milovina, Grace Byron, Sol Cabrini, and Theo Ellin Ballew, and hosted by Wonder Press editor Annie Lou Martin.
Free; 7.30pm; Mood Ring, 1260 Myrtle Ave, Brooklyn
NB. Please check all details before attending, the fact checker went awol.
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 (forthcoming). I’m here and here on Instagram. Get in touch with any bookish events you’d like me to include!
