Reading the City
Sept 9 to 15
Welcome back to Reading the City, a weekly newsletter of bookish events in and around NYC.
This week, we have launches from Rachel Kushner, Elizabeth Strout, and Idra Novey; a visit from Seattle-based series Nonfiction for No Reason; and, this weekend, the kick off of the Asian American Literature Festival.
And for writers amongst you, Craft & Release are seeking storytellers for their upcoming event (Sept 26) on the theme of “Redemption & Revenge.” I can vouch for it being a truly special spot to share a story, so if you have something up your sleeve submit here.
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, September 9
Franklin Park Reading Series
Kicking off the Fall season with a bang, Franklin Park welcomes Helen Phillips (Hum), Ayana Mathis (The Unsettled), Mateo Askaripour (This Great Hemisphere), Jennifer Baker (Forgive Me Not), Lena Valencia (Mystery Lights), and Julian Tepper (Cooler Heads) sharing newly released work. Hosted by founder Penina Roth, expect drink specials and a raffle for the readers' latest books.
Free; 8-10pm; 766 Franklin Avenue, 618 St Johns Pl, Brooklyn
Rachel Kushner: Creation Lake
Rachel Kushner (The Mars Room) discusses Booker Prize-nominated Creation Lake, her propulsive new novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France, in conversation with Emma Straub (Modern Lovers).
Free, RSVP; 7-8.30pm; Brooklyn Central Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn
Idra Novey: Soon and Wholly
Idra Novey (Take What You Need) presents her first poetry collection in a decade, facing the complexities of life on a swiftly heating earth, in conversation with Omotara James (Song of My Softening) and artist Erica Baum.
$5 redeemable in-store, RSVP required; 7pm; McNally Jackson Seaport, 4 Fulton St, New York
Miss Manhattan Reading Series
This non-fiction reading series hosted by (Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City) this month features Tanisha C. Ford (Our Secret Society), Daniel Allen Cox (I Felt the End Before it Came), Shayna Maci Warner (The Rainbow Age of Television), and Aida Zilelian (All the Ways We Lied).
Free; 7.30pm; Niagara, 112 Avenue A, New York
Tuesday, September 10
Melissa Petro: Shame On You
Journalist Melissa Petro discusses Shame On You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification—a courageous, in-depth investigation into the modern epidemic of shame in our society—with Tiffanie Drayton (Black American Refugee) and Erin Khar (Strung Out).
Free; 6.30pm; Barnes & Noble, Atlantic Avenue, 194 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn
Arlie Russell Hochschild: Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right
National Book Award finalist Arlie Russell Hochschild (The Second Shift) discusses Stolen Pride—an exploration of the nonrational dimensions of political identity and mobilization—in conversation with MacArthur-winner and Evicted author Matthew Desmond.
Free, RSVP; 6.30-8pm; Center for Brooklyn History, 128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn
KGB Bar Journalist Reading
The 32nd season of NYC’s longest running journalist reading series begins with a special pre-debate edition, featuring: Nina Burleigh (Secret History of the Trump Women), Lisa Chase, Joe Conason (The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism), and Ross Perlin (Language City: The Fight to Preserve the Mother Tongues of NYC).
Free (two drink minimum); 7-9pm; KGB Red Room, 85 East 4th Street, New York
Wednesday, September 11
Elizabeth Strout: Tell Me Everything
A release event with Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elizabeth Strout (Lucy by the Sea) discussing her new novel Tell Me Everything—a hopeful, healing novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world—in conversation with Ann Napolitano (Hello Beautiful).
$7.81; 7-8pm; Strand Book Store, 828 Broadway 3rd Floor, Rare Book Room, New York
Cebo Campbell: Sky Full of Elephants
Cebo Campbell presents his debut novel Sky Full of Elephants—which starts from this premise: In a world without white people, what does it mean to be black? Cebo is joined by artist and storyteller Joekenneth Museau.
$10, redeemable in-store; 7-8pm; Books Are Magic Montague, 122 Montague Street, Brooklyn, and livestreamed free
Clara Bingham with Farai Chideya: Revolutionary Foremothers
Award-winning journalist Clara Bingham’s new book, The Movement: How Women's Liberation Transformed America 1963-1973, is the first oral history of the decade that built the modern feminist movement. Joining her to discuss the book is journalist Farai Chideya (Our Body Politic).
Free, register online; 7-8pm; NYPL, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 42nd St & 5th Avenue, New York, and livestreamed
Fantastic Fiction
(Trouble the Saints) and Sarah Beth Durst (The Spellshop) feature at this fantasy reading series hosting by Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel.
Free; 7-9pm; KGB Red Room, 85 East 4th Street, New York
Thursday, September 12
NYU Reading Series: Catherine Barnett and Claudia Rankine
Poets Catherine Barnett (Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced) and Claudia Rankine (Citizen: An American Lyric) read, followed by a conversation and reception.
Free, RSVP required; 5-7pm; Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, 58 West 10th Street, New York
Nonfiction for No Reason
Nonfiction for No Reason is coming in from Seattle, WA. Jessica Lynne will co-host with founder . Readers are Delali Ayivor (She is This), Daniel Allen Cox (I Felt the End Before It Came), (First Love), Kristin Dombek (The Selfishness of Others), John Englehardt (Bloomland), , Anastacia Renee (Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere), and Jet Toomer.
$25; 7-9pm; Book Club Bar, 197 East 3rd Street, New York
Coco Mellors: Blue Sisters
Coco Mellors (Cleopatra and Frankenstein) presents her new novel Blue Sisters—three estranged sisters return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, hope, and the complexities of family—in conversation with Tess Gunty (Rabbit Hutch).
$10.89; 7-8pm; First Unitarian Congregational Society, 119 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn
On America: The Fight for Justice on Native Land with Rebecca Nagle and Audra Simpson
In the first of a four-part series on housing, land, and the policies that shape our country, the Center for Fiction—co-presented by American Indian Community House—welcomes award-winning reporter, writer, and activist Rebecca Nagle to celebrate her new book, By The Fire We Carry—a powerful work of reportage that tells the story of the generations-long fight for tribal sovereignty in Eastern Oklahoma. Rebecca is joined by writer and Professor Audra Simpson (Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States).
$10; 7-8.15pm; The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, and livestreamed
The Unhinged Bisexual Novel: a conversation presented by Lux Magazine
How did the ambivalent bisexual protagonist become a literary fiction trend? Lux magazine hosts a panel to explore the question with speakers Emma Copley Eisenberg (Housemates), Ezra Kupor of HarperCollins, Feminist Press’s Kameel Mir, and Natalie Adler and Cheryl Rivera, both editors at Lux.
$5, redeemable in-store, RSVP required; 6.30pm; McNally Jackson Williamsburg, 76 N. 4th St. Brooklyn
Friday, September 13
Devika Rege: Quarterlife
In conjunction with the Asian American Writer's Workshop, Devika Rege celebrates the U.S. publication of her critically acclaimed debut novel, Quarterlife—a reflective narrative about India’s political pulse and changing value systems circa 2014—with Merve Emre, the editor of the forthcoming story collection I Am Alien to Life.
$5, redeemable in store; 7pm; P&T Knitwear, 180 Orchard Street, New York
Saturday, September 14
Book Hoes Book Exchange & Mixer
The NYC-based Book Club for Book Hoes, run by creator and organizer Zoë Mahler, host these book exchanges and mixers. Bring or take as many or as few books as you like. Bookish cocktails and merch are available for purchase. All tickets include one entry into the raffle.
$10, no entry on the door; 4-6pm; Nighthorse, 66 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn
Sunday, September 15
2024 Asian American Literature Festival (AALF)
Running from Sept 14 to 22, AALF is a multi-city—now global—gathering to nurture Asian American literature and the literary community, produced and curated by an amazing collection of partners. This year the theme is “cosmic kinship: literature across space and time” and events are both in-person and online. Today, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop presents the work of late poet Meena Alexander and hosts a pre-launch for anthology We the Gathered Heat.
Free, various
NB. Please check all details before attending, the fact checker went awol.
I’m a Brooklyn-based journalist and author. My debut novel Amphibian is forthcoming from Ig on October 22, Virago (UK), and dtv (Germany). My first book, No Way Home: A Memoir of Life on the Run (St. Martin’s Press, 2018) followed my childhood as the daughter of an international pot smuggler and federal fugitive. I’m here and here on Instagram. Get in touch with any bookish events you’d like me to include!
Omg I didn't realize Elizabeth Strout has a new book coming out, thanks for sharing!