Reading the City
Sept 3 to 8
This is Reading the City, your weekly newsletter of bookish events in and around NYC, coming to you a day late, thanks to the long weekend—I hope you had a good one!
Summer’s done and there’s no messing around—we’re straight to it with the big Fall launches. Chelsea Bieker chats Madwoman with T Kira Madden; Garth Greenwell celebrates Small Rain; and Edwidge Danticat discusses her new essay collection with Roxane Gay. That last gem is part of Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival, which has more events than I can list here, so make sure you check it out, too.
Enjoy! And as ever, please share the love with your bookish friends.
Tuesday, September 3
Chelsea Bieker: Madwoman
(Godshot) celebrates Madwoman—the novel tells a gripping story of motherhood and motherloss and the brutal, mighty things women do to keep themselves and each other alive—with T. Kira Madden (Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls).
Free; 6.30pm; Barnes & Noble Atlantic Avenue, 194 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn
Matt Haig: The Life Impossible
Matt Haig (The Midnight Library) celebrates his new book The Life Impossible, following a retired teacher who is left a house on a Mediterranean island by a departed friend, in conversation with ABC News correspondent Will Reeve.
Free; 6pm; Barnes & Noble Union Square, 33 East 17th Street, New York
Wednesday, September 4
Garth Greenwell: Small Rain
(Cleanness) celebrates his latest book, Small Rain—a searching, sweeping novel set at the furthest edges of human experience—with Alexandra Schwartz, a New Yorker staff writer and co-host of the magazine’s Critics at Large podcast.
$38, including book; 7-8.15pm; The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, and livestreamed
Coco Mellors: Blue Sisters
Coco Mellors (Cleopatra and Frankenstein) discusses Blue Sisters—three estranged siblings 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 Jenny Jackson, the vice president and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf.
Free; 7pm; Barnes & Noble, 82nd & Broadway, 2289 Broadway, New York
Ross Benjamin: The Diaries of Franz Kafka
Ross Benjamin presents his essential new translation of Franz Kafka’s complete, uncensored diaries—a revelation of the idiosyncrasies and rough edges of one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers—in conversation with Elif Bautman (The Idiot).
$5 redeemable in-store, RSVP required; 6.15pm; McNally Jackson Seaport, 4 Fulton St, New York
Thursday, September 5
Honor Moore: A Termination
Honor Moore (The Bishop’s Daughter) presents A Termination—“a masterly account of what it meant, in the 1960s, to be a woman of spirit and intelligence plunged into the particular hell that is unwanted pregnancy,” says Vivian Gornick (Fierce Attachments), who joins Honor in conversation. After party in the wine bar.
$5 redeemable in-store, RSVP required; 6.15pm; McNally Jackson Seaport, 4 Fulton St, New York
Claudia Rankine & Jess Row Discuss Don’t Let Me Be Lonely & The New Earth
Co-Presented with Books Are Magic, BPL Presents welcomes Claudia Rankine and Jess Row. Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely is a brilliant and unsparing examination of America in the early twenty-first century; and Jess Row’s The New Earth is globe-spanning epic novel about a fractured New York family reckoning with the harms of the past.
Free, with registration; 7-8.30pm; Central Library 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn
Edwidge Danticat: We're Alone
The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival and The Center for Fiction host a keynote conversation and the official launch of Edwidge Danticat’s new collection of essays, We’re Alone, which traces a loose arc from Danticat’s childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti. (Bad Feminist) joins in conversation.
$50, including book; 7-8.15pm; The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, and livestreamed
Rally Reading Series
The Rally Reading Series, a platform for overtly political literature created by Ryan D. Matthews, opens its new season with Nell Freudenberger (The Limits), Ben Purkert (The Men Can’t Be Saved), and Anjali Khosla, a writer, poet, and an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Design at The New School.
Free; 7pm; Pete's Candy Store, 709 Lorimer St, Brooklyn
Culture on the Corner: A Conversation with Esmeralda Santiago
As part of Culture on the Corner, a recurring event series from Columbia’s The Forum, Esmeralda Santiago reads from her latest novel, Las Madres—a powerful novel of family, race, faith, sex, and disaster that moves between Puerto Rico and the Bronx, revealing the lives and loves of five women and the secret that binds them together. Esmeralda will be joined by Jaquira Díaz (Ordinary Girls). RSVP is encouraged.
Free; 6-7pm; The Forum at Columbia University, 601 West 125th Street, New York
StoryTell: Messing Up
This one is always sold out, so I don’t ever list it—but there’s still tickets up for grabs! StoryTell is an informal gathering to learn, inspire, and share real life stories around a theme—this time “Messing Up”. Founder and host welcomes storytellers from the audience to take the stage; it’s optional and open to anyone. Consider it a low-stakes opportunity to share your story with a warm, open community in a “campfire stories” setting. Light snacks and tea provided; and feel free to BYODinner.
By donation; 7pm promptly; Register to see address
Moon Unit Zappa: Earth to Moon
Moon Unit Zappa, the daughter of Frank Zappa, celebrates the launch of Earth to Moon—a memoir of growing up in her unconventional household in 1970s Los Angeles, coming of age in the Hollywood Hills in the 1980s as the “Valley Girl,” gaining momentum as an accidental VJ on a new network called MTV, and finding herself after losing her father, then her mother. Moon is joined by , a contributing writer at Vanity Fair, a political analyst at MSNBC News, and host of the podcast Fast Politics.
From $11.49; 7-9pm; Oaks Church Brooklyn, 231 Ainslie Street, Brooklyn
Cynthia Zarin: Next Day
Cynthia Zarin launches her new poetry collection Next Day: New and Selected Poems, a tour through her five exquisitely made collections.
Free; 6-7.30pm; The Corner Bookstore, 1313 Madison Avenue, New York
Friday, September 6
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha: Something About Living
Poet, essayist, and translator Lena Khalaf Tuffaha (Water & Salt) discusses Something About Living—this poetry collection interweaves Palestine’s historic suffering, the challenges of living in this world full of violence and ill will, and the gentle delights we embrace to survive that violence. Lena is joined by special guests Lara Atallah (Exit signs on a seaside highway), Marwa Helal (Ante body), and Monica Sok (A Nail the Evening Hangs On).
Free; 7-8pm; Brooklyn Poets, 144 Montague Street, #2nd floor, Brooklyn
Support Your Local Writers! Live Reading Fundraiser
Romance bookstore The Ripped Bodice invites 10 local writers to share love stories. Baked goods and wine provided by Park Slope Ale House for sale. Donations will support an upcoming writer’s retreat for emerging writers.
Free; 7.30-9.30pm; The Ripped Bodice, 218 5th Avenue, Brooklyn
NYU Fiction Reading: Phillip B. Williams, Hosted by Terrance Hayes
The NYU semester has begun and with it a new season of reading events: this time from Phillip B. Williams (Ours) in conversation with Terrance Hayes (American Sonnets for My Past And Future Assassin).
Free, RSVP required; 5-7pm; Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, 58 West 10th Street, New York
Danzy Senna: Colored Television
Danzy Senna (Caucasia) discusses her new novel, Colored Television—a raucous dark comedy about second acts, creative appropriation, and the travails of the racial-identity industrial complex—in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad).
$10; 7-8.15pm; The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, and livestreamed
Saturday, September 7
Harlem Book Fair 2024
Celebrating its 26th anniversary, this year’s theme is “literary revolution.” The day features exhibition booths, panel discussions, book sales, and workshops, with appearances from authors Ijeoma Oluo, Natasha S. Alford, and Mike Africa, Jr. amongst many others. For the first time, the HBF is collaborating with the Caribbean Cultural Center Diaspora Institute, providing a space where attendees will be immersed in Haiti's rich literary traditions, and Edwidge Danticat, Roxanne Gay, and Ibi Ziboi are among the speakers. (Note: Some events take place at other locations).
9am-6pm; Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building, 163 W 125th St, New York
Lofty Pigeon Books One Year Anniversary
To celebrate its first birthday, the lovely Lofty Pigeon Books (my local bookstore!) are throwing an all-day party, celebrating and giving back to the businesses, artists, authors, and people that have lifted them up this past year. Expect raffles, cookies, face-painting, food and drinks, and live music—not to mention 20 percent off local author books.
Free; 6.30-8pm; Lofty Pigeon Books, 743 Church Avenue Brooklyn
Sunday, September 8
Jeffrey Goldberg: On Heroism
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, discusses his new collection of essays, On Heroism: McCain, Milley, Mattis, and the Cowardice of Donald Trump in conversation with MSNBC’s Alex Wagner.
$15; 6pm; 92NY, Buttenwieser Hall at The Arnhold Center, 55 W 13th St, New York, and livestreamed online
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!
Thanks for including StoryTell in your roundup! xxx
thank you for sharing this!!