Reading the City
August 26 to September 1
Welcome back to Reading the City, a weekly newsletter of bookish events in and around NYC.
It’s still the summer lull, but we have No Tokens Issue 11 launch party at Pete’s Candy Store, a Brooklyn-inspired book of poems from Brad Vogel (formerly of Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club), and Feminist Giant and the Strand join forces again.
Upcoming: I want to put together a bumper edition for Brooklyn Book Festival—and there is so much going on. So, if you’re reading or hosting events, please get in touch! I’d love to spotlight the work of this community.
Thank you, and, as ever, please share the love with your bookish friends.
Monday, August 26
Feminist Giant & Strand Present: Asha Thanki & Sadiya Ansari with Mona Eltahawy
Asha Thanki and Sadiya Ansari discuss their latest books A Thousand Times Before and In Exile: Rupture, Reunion, and my Grandmother's Secret Life in conversation with author and founder of Feminist Giant .
From $24 including a copy of In Exile; 7-8pm; Strand Book Store, 828 Broadway 3rd Floor, Rare Book Room, New York
Herbal Supplements Reading Series
A monthly series spotlighting queer, trans, and BIPOC cross-genre readers and musicians, hosted by Jules Rivera, and taking place at natural wine bar Cherry On Top, this month features Noella Williams, Pearl Emerson, Tyler Exum, Phoebe Lloyd, and Mikayla Bryant (Substack:
).
Free, but donations for the writers encouraged; 8pm; Cherry On Top, RSVP for the address
World Transexual Forum
This month Anton Solomonik and Jeanne Thornton’s World Transsexual Forum, an open mic and refined intellectual symposium for trans/GNC writers and artists, features multidisciplinary writer Cavar. Their novel, Failure to Comply, has been described by Rivers Solomon as “an abolitionist text concerned with trans, disabled, and Mad liberation as a speculative art.”
Free; 7pm sign-up, 8pm readings; Franklin Park, 618 St Johns Place, Brooklyn
Tuesday, August 27
MyBiblioteka Reading Series
Kicking off a new Reading Series at MyBiblioteka Brooklyn, a Russian and Ukrainian language bookstore and library, authors Julia Phillips (Bear), Julian Tepper (Cooler Heads), Gabriella Burnham (Wait), and Svetlana Satchkova (People and Birds) come together to read and discuss their books. Curated and emceed by educator and MyBiblioteka bookstore owner Anya Morlan-Stysis. Wine and light snacks. The meeting will be held in English. Register via link.
Free; 7-9pm; 731 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, Brooklyn
Kailee Pedersen: Sacrificial Animals
Inspired by Kailee Pedersen's own journey being adopted from Nanning, China, in 1996 and growing up on a farm in Nebraska, Sacrificial Animals is a rich and atmospheric supernatural debut novel, exploring an ancient Chinese mythology. Kailee is joined in conversation by Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer (Bad Animal).
Free; 6-7pm; Yu and Me Books, 44 Mulberry Street, New York
Janika Oza: A History of Burning
Janika Oza celebrates the paperback release of her debut novel, A History of Burning—a "vast and intricate...towering debut" (Megha Majumdar) in which the embers of a desperate act by a family's patriarch are fanned into flame over four generations, four continents, throughout the twentieth century. Janika will be joined by Jenny Xie (Holding Pattern).
$5, redeemable in store; 7pm; P&T Knitwear, 180 Orchard Street, New York
Kiran Bath, Megan Pinto, and Asha Thanki
Brooklyn-based writers Kiran Bath (Instructions for Banno), Megan Pinto (Saints of Little Faith), and Asha Thanki (A Thousand Times Before) present their work with a joint launch event. The three authors discuss writing from intersectional identities, writing through and about the South Asian communities from which they hail and the impact of the social and political forces of those communities, and themes of shame, honor, colonialism, and more. Wine reception to follow.
Free; 7.30pm; Greenlight bookstore, 686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
Translation Conversation Series
Translator Jennifer Feeley presents Xi Xi's Mourning a Breast, with Dorothy Tse (Owlish) and Emmeline Clein (Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm). Mourning a Breast is a wise and amiably written book of autobiographical fiction on the author’s experience with breast cancer and her passage from a life lived through the mind into a life lived through the body.
$5 redeemable in-store, RSVP required; 7pm; McNally Jackson Seaport, 4 Fulton St, New York
Casey Michel: Foreign Agents
Author, journalist, and director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program, Casey Michel launches Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World—a stunning investigation and indictment of a segment of the United States’ foreign lobbying industry, and the threat to end democracy—in conversation with Versha Sharma, editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue.
$5, redeemable in-store; 7-9pm; Powerhouse Arena, 28 Adams Street, Brooklyn
Wednesday, August 28
Elisa Albert: The Snarling Girl and Other Essays
Elisa Albert (Human Blues) presents The Snarling Girl and Other Essays, an essay collection that considers everything from the creative process to reproductive justice, ambition to Ani DiFranco, Judaism to the ethos of punk, all in the midst of making a home in the strange city of Albany, New York. Elisa discusses her work with Sara Lippmann (Jerks). Wine reception to follow
Free; 7.30pm; Greenlight bookstore, 686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
Hansen Shi: The Expat
Hansen Shi celebrates his debut novel, The Expat—a contemporary spin on the classic espionage novel that is "smart as it is engrossing . . . a haunting exploration of the seductions and the disappointments of national and ethnic affiliations," (Ju Yon Kim, The Racial Mundane). Hansen will be joined by Christopher Bollen (Havoc, forthcoming).
$5, redeemable in store; 7pm; P&T Knitwear, 180 Orchard Street, New York
Evan Friss: The Bookshop
For all you bookshop lovers, Evan Friss’s The Bookshop is an affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life. Evan is joined by writer and bookseller Isabel Banta (Honey, forthcoming).
$10, redeemable in-store; 7-8pm; Books Are Magic Montague, 122 Montague Street, Brooklyn, and livestreamed free
Thursday, August 29
No Tokens Issue Launch Party
Celebrate the release of No Tokens Issue 11, with readings from contributors and No Tokens alumni Kenneth J Calhoun, Li Sian Goh Wren Hanks, Emily Liu, Dominick Nero, Vanessa Y. Niu, Mary Paige Snell, and Ryan Walker.
Free; 7pm; Pete's Candy Store, 709 Lorimer St, Brooklyn
Brad Vogel: Find Me in the Feral Pockets
In Find Me In the Feral Pockets: Poems from the Gowanus Interregnum, poet Brad Vogel (and former captain of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club) paddles through pollution, relationships, environmental concerns, accreted layers of history, and even humor as he distills Gowanus into a collection of unique, sometimes bracing poems. (Read the write-up in the New Yorker here). Brad is joined by nonprofit leader Lillian Ruiz.
$10, redeemable in-store; 7-8pm; Books Are Magic Montague, 122 Montague Street, Brooklyn, and livestreamed free
Reading at Topos Too
A Reading with Aristilde Kirby, James Loop, Garrett Phelps, Emily Simon, and Cassie Vogel.
Free; 7.30pm; Topos Too, 5922 Myrtle Ave. Ridgewood, Queens
Friday, August 30
Brooklyn Poets Friday Night Open
An open mic culminating in readings by two featured poets: linda harris dolan (i’m probably betraying my body) and Kiran Bath (Instructions for Banno). Open mic signup begins at 6pm.
Free; 6.30-9pm; Brooklyn Poets, 144 Montague Street, Brooklyn
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, available in the UK now from Virago, and in 2025 from 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!