Presented by TOPPLE Books. Melissa Faliveno’s Tomboyland navigates the mysterious terrain of androgyny and bisexuality, womanhood and rage, religion and myth, loneliness and love. Ultimately, she asks what it means to live in the spaces between and what it means to come home. In An American Covenant: A Story of Women, Mysticism, and the Making of Modern America, Lucile Scott shares the history of five female mystic leaders over three centuries for whom hope, liberation, and understanding are the foundation for living. Moderated by BRIC TV Chief Correspondent, Brian Vines, the conversation will land in contemporary American culture. 

In a conversation that promises to span topics as cosmic as outer space, exoplanets, and black holes, and as earthbound as writing, gender politics, memoir, and educational YouTube — join the New York Times in conversation with two of today’s leading astrophysicists. Times Book Review writer and editor Gal Beckerman will moderate the discussion with Sara Seager — MIT astrophysicist, and author of a deeply felt memoir on loss and the unexpected solace of exoplanetary exploration — and Becky Smethurst, Oxford professor, popular astrophysics YouTuber, and author of a new illustrated book bringing us the mysteries of the cosmos in a down-to-earth medium.

It gets better — but the path to joy is never straight. From seeing to being, three Black Queer authors: George M. Johnson (All Boy’s Aren’t Blue), Jamal Jordan (Queer Love in Color) and Darnell L. Moore (No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America) share their journey to fully realizing their Queer Black Selves and living their versions of joy. Moderated by BRIC-TV Chief Correspondent Brian Vines.

Each season the Brooklyn Book Festival selects a few debut authors whose books we think shouldn’t be missed.  This year’s debut book picks include: The New Wilderness – Diane Cook, Like A Bird – Fariha Róisín, My Mother’s House – Francesca Momplaisir, What’s Left of Me Is Yours – Stephanie Scott, Whiteout Conditions– Tariq Shah, Sharks In the TIme of Saviors-Kawai Strong Washburn. Meet these debut authors, who will each read a selection from their book.

Join R.L. Stine, one of America’s best-selling children’s authors in history (The Goosebumps series and Fear Street) and Tim Jacobus, an American artist, illustrator and video games designer best known for illustrating the covers for nearly 100 books in the R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps series, as they talk about the stories they tell, their collaborative imagination, and share some secrets behind some original Goosebumps’ covers!  R.L. Stine’s latest book in the Goosebumps series is My Friend Slappy (Goosebumps SlappyWorld #12).

Written by New York Times journalists, the now best-selling Finish the Fight captures untold stories in the fight for women’s right to vote, particularly the underrepresented but vital voices of BIPOC and queer activists. The Times is thrilled to join the Brooklyn Book Festival to discuss the genesis, creation, and impact of this recent release. Veronica Chambers, the primary author and creator of the book, along with key contributor Sandra Garcia, will join this conversation moderated by Times Culture editor and gender reporter Maya Salam.

World Builders of the Past and Future, Ilube Nommo Award–winning author Tochi Onyebuchi (Riot Baby) and #1 NYT bestselling author Christopher Paolini (To Sleep in a Sea of Stars) team up for a wide-ranging discussion about their newest books, world building in science fiction and fantasy, writing for a YA and an adult audience, and the fun of nerd culture in general. Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of Beasts Made of Night, its sequel Crown of Thunder, War Girls. Christopher Paolini is the author of the international bestsellers Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance, as well as The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm. Moderated by Christina Orlando. Presented with the 370 🅙 Project, NYU.

How is technology changing our daily lives? And how may we change it for the better? Three recent books provide fascinating answers to these questions. Charlton McIlwain’s Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, From the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter, offers a compelling history and theory of how many forms of bias and subordination degraded online life, and how they can be combated. Joanne McNeil’s Lurking: How a Person Became a User, identifies the primary (if sometimes contradictory) concerns of people online: searching, safety, privacy, identity, community, anonymity, and visibility. And Frank Pasquale’s New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI, offers an inspiring vision of technological progress, in which human capacities and expertise are the irreplaceable center of an inclusive economy. Moderated by Christina Mulligan, Brooklyn Law School, Vice Dean Professor of Law: Internet Law & Intellectual Property

For most of our history the story has gone that white Southerners were racists while white Northerners were not. Today that myth is largely dismantled, thanks in part to three historians whose books lay bare the pernicious and widespread racism up north, and lift up the leaders and movements fighting these systems. Clarence Taylor (Fight the Power: African Americans and the Long History of Police Brutality in NYC) and Jeanne Theoharis (A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History) join the Brooklyn Historical Society for a conversation about a New York history that is, thankfully, no longer hidden.

Let’s get ready to rumble! You won’t want to miss this epic live-action drawing competition refereed by the brilliant and award-winning artist Raúl The Third (VAMOS! Let’s Go Eat) and featuring talented illustrators Ruth Chan (The Great Indoors), Juana Medina (We Are the Change), and Kevin Sherry (Squidding Around: Fish Feud!).

Friendship can be super complicated, really intense, and totally embarrassing—especially when magic sketchbooks, broken hearts, alien adventures, and loads of family drama are involved! Join comics expert Calvin Reid as he celebrates the 15th anniversary of the Graphix imprint with Varian Johnson and Shannon Wright (Twins), Maria Scrivan (Nat Enough), Kristen Gudsnuk (Making Friends: Back to the Drawing Board), and Chris Grine (Animporphs #1: The Invasion) to meet some new best friends and see how they are drawn from life!

A boy who believes in fairytales, a young psychic who can speak to the dead, besties about to break up, and three girls who take down a sexist list ranking their classmates by their looks. Author and librarian Betsy Bird leads characters from stories by Zoraida Córdova (The Way to Rio Luna), Gilbert Ford (The Mysterious Messenger), Debbi Michiko Florence (Keep It Together, Keiko Carter), and Brigit Young (The Prettiest) through a revealing personality quiz that will bring them to life.

New York Times bestselling author Chris Grabenstein (Mr. Lemoncello and the Titanium Ticket) joins two debut standouts, Jessica Kim (Stand Up, Yumi Chung!) and Janae Marks (From the Desk of Zoe Washington), to discuss how their characters face their fears—whether that be a death-defying scavenger hunt, telling jokes on stage, or finding the truth about your dad—and discover the courage to pursue their dreams when life-changing obstacles stand in the way. Moderated by award-winning author Kate Messner (Chirp).

An eccentric family of witches, malicious spirits wreaking havoc all over town, a road trip full of monsters and mayhem—‘tis the season for spooky stories that will give you, well, goosebumps. Join authors R.L. Stine (Goosebumps), Claribel Ortega (Ghost Squad), and Sophie Escabasse (Witches of Brooklyn) as they chat about all things that go bump in the night. Moderated by Max Brallier (Last Kids on Earth).

Do you want to see two illustrators live-drawing a story as Pura Belpré Award Winner Carlos Hernandez (Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe) spins a tale right before your eyes? Come watch bestselling creator Ben Clanton (Narwhal and Jelly) and Pura Belpré Honoree Angela Dominguez (Stella Díaz Never Gives Up) as they sketch some wacky stories–and you can make suggestions for what should happen!

New York Times bestselling authors Karen McManus (One of Us Is Next) and Rory Power (Burn Our Bodies Down) join acclaimed author Camryn Garrett (Full Disclosure) in a riveting conversation about fear, deception, and the lengths characters will go to keep some truths hidden. Moderated by debut author of K-pop Confidential, Stephan Lee.

What are our stories? As we grow up and figure out our place in the world, we find them — or create them. The pieces that make them up encompass queerness, racism, family history, politics, sexism, activism, and sports in this discussion with Mike Curato (Flamer), Kiku Hughes (Displacement), and Gene Luen Yang (Dragon Hoops). Moderated by New York Times Book Review editor MJ Franklin. 

Whether it’s canvassing for change with a new-friend-turned-love-interest, falling for the competition in a tight race for prom queen, or seeking revenge but somehow finding yourself on a path of self-discovery, relationships are such a hallmark of the teen experience—relationships with others, of course, but also your relationship with yourself. Join bestselling YA authors Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed (Yes No Maybe So), Leah Johnson (You Should See Me in a Crown), and Kacen Callender (Felix Ever After) as they discuss the life-defining relationships explored in their recent novels. Moderated by Caleb Roehrig (The Fell of Dark).

New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu (Skyhunter), Stonewall award winner Brandy Colbert (The Voting Booth), and debut talent Kim Johnson (This Is My America) discuss authoritarianism, voting rights, and the American justice system in an important conversation about power, privilege, and teens getting political. Moderated by Daniel Nayeri (Everything Sad Is Untrue).

New York Times bestselling author Libba Bray (The King of Crows), acclaimed author Justin A. Reynolds (Early Departures), and debut novelist Ryan La Sala (Reverie) discuss dreams, death, destiny, and teens making big choices in worlds that blur the lines between reality and fantasy. Moderated by author Patrice Caldwell (A Phoenix First Must Burn).

The pandemic has changed home cooking and our relationship with our pantries, along with our concept of what “worthy” and “accessible” cooking projects entail. Over the last few months, homemade sourdough loaves have proliferated, yeast, beans, and flour have become treasured commodities, and experienced and fledgling home cooks alike have found themselves searching for new and better answers to the eternal question of how to feed ourselves day after day. Whether you’re a new parent to a sourdough starter or a longtime kombucha brewer, you’ll have much to learn from Bryan Ford (New World Sourdough: Artisan Techniques for Creative Homemade Fermented Breads), Joe Yonan (Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking With the World’s Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein), and Bill Buford (Dirt). Moderated by Cathy Erway, host of Heritage Radio Network’s “Eat Your Words”.

Legendary critic and memoirist Vivian Gornick (Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader) speaks with Adrienne Miller, the first woman to be literary esquire at Esquire (In the Land of Men: A Memoir) about finding your place in the city, in the world, and sometimes in yourself, through reading and writing. Moderated by poet, translator, and essayist Carina del Valle Schorske.

Racism, classism, distrust, and surveillance are just a few of the challenges one faces when trying to make earnest connections in lonely and trying times. But these stories just might contain the clues for a better future. Join award-winning novelist Kelli Jo Ford (Crooked Hallelujah), 5 Under 35 honoree Tracy O’Neill (Quotients), and New York Times best-selling debut author Kiley Reid (Such a Fun Age) for a discussion about some of the thorniest issues plaguing society today and how they affect human relationships. Moderated by Meakin Armstrong, senior fiction editor at Guernica.

Poets Aria Aber (Hard Damage), Diannely Antigua (Ugly Music), Ricardo Alberto Maldonado (The Life Assignment), and John Murillo (Kontemporary Amerikan) will read from their recently published volumes of poetry. Introduced by Nikay Paredes, Academy of American Poets.

Poets Mark Bibbins (13th Balloon), Eduardo C. Corral (Guillotine), Hafizah Geter (Un-American), and Jonah Mixon-Webster (Stereo (TYPE)) read from their new collections, and discuss how history and legacy serve as a lens in their work, through which to view the present moment. Moderated by Tina Chang, Brooklyn Poet Laureate.

Join four authors honored by the 2019 National Book Awards for a conversation on contemporary literature, recognition, and cross-genre Black storytelling. Featuring Kwame Alexander (The Undefeated, Longlist, Young People’s Literature), Jericho Brown (The Tradition, Finalist, Poetry), Marlon James (Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Finalist, Fiction), and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership, Longlist, Nonfiction). Moderated by Lisa Lucas, Executive Director of the National Book Foundation.

Though what emerges are two very different reads, both authors share an investigative, almost true-crime approach to their overlapping subjects: where Nick Flynn (This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire) goes on a personal detective hunt into the mysterious events of his family’s traumatic past and his mother’s profound struggles during his childhood, Susannah Cahalan (The Great Pretender) puts forth her own journalistic detective story around mental health and one of the most shocking chapters in the history of modern psychiatry. Moderated by New York Times book critic, Jennifer Szalai. 

The story of popular music—the meaning and legacy of its key figures and unrecognized innovators, and how it has both shaped and reflected the societal forces, conversations and revolutions of our times—is forever being written and rewritten. Explore with three bold chroniclers of sound and politics: Sasha Geffen (Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary), Maureen Mahon (Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll), and Marcus J. Moore (The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America). Moderated by Bandcamp’s Jes Skolnik.

Salman Rushdie, the author most recently of Quichotte_,and Maaza Mengiste, editor of Addis Ababa Noir and author of The Shadow King discuss the influence and inspiration of historical texts and structures on their writing, plus spy literature, noir and the impact of immigrant writers on American  literature. Moderated by Leigh Haber. 

Jerry Saltz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic, senior art critic of New York Magazine and author of How To Be An Artist and Darby English, art historian, Carl Darling Buck Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago and author of To Describe a Life: Notes from the Intersection of Art and Race Terror, engage in a talk about art and artists and interactions with art in time, space and place. Moderated by art historian, critic, and author Eva Díaz.

Does the concept of race hide more than it reveals? Join Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson (Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents) in conversation with sociologist Michael Eric Dyson (Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America, forthcoming) about racial hierarchy, the possibility of historical change, and rethinking the frameworks that brought us here. 

Most recently, revelations at Bon Appetit magazine have made evident the role that gatekeeping plays in the food and food media worlds in terms of preventing women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized communities from getting a seat at the table. This panel will explore this dynamic of exclusion, as well as how members of marginalized communities have been able to break through by both playing by the rules and breaking them. Panelists will include writers such as Victoria James (Wine Girl: The Humiliations, Obstacles, and Triumphs of America’s Youngest Sommelier), John Birdsall (The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard), and Jessica Harris (My Soul Looks Back) whose works have focused on breaking into exclusive worlds and the barriers to doing so. Moderated by Priya Krishna, author of Indian-ish.

These authors’ books may focus on women at different stages and from different walks of life, but they are all united by their common desire to break out of the box patriarchy places them in. Join critically acclaimed novelist Lauren Francis-Sharma (Book of the Little Axe), highly anticipated debut novelist Emily Temple (The Lightness), and award-winning short story writer Laura van den Berg (I Hold a Wolf by the Ears) for a conversation about violence, economics, and colonialism, framed through the persistent shadow of misogyny. Moderated by Emily Firetog, deputy editor of Literary Hub.

Join three powerhouse Latinx authors, Angie Cruz, Jaquira Díaz and Carolina De Robertis, in conversation on the themes of love and resistance in their work, and on the power of intersectional Latinx literatures to break silence, challenge oppression, and cultivate joy and justice. 

Who do we trust to tell a story and who are the true witnesses to a reality impossible to understand from just one angle? Featuring Fernanda Melchor, Marcial Gala, and Nona Fernandez, this panel delves into the work of three vibrant new writers from Latin America whose novels provide polyphonic examinations of collective reckoning. Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season, shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize, captures a whirlwind of voices in an exploration of femicide in a rural village in Veracruz, Mexico. Marcial Gala’s The Black Cathedral, meanwhile, relies on a motley crew of murderers, gossips, and ghosts to tell a story of faith and shattered illusions in Cienfuegos, Cuba; while Nona Fernandez’s Space Invaders approaches Pinochet’s Chile through the eyes of schoolchildren only dimly aware of the dictatorship’s shadowy reach. Moderated by author and translator Idra Novey.

A Texas ranger searches for a missing child and encounters forces of white supremacy. A journalist defies the warnings of police and investigates the murder of a woman with whom he had a one-night stand. And, in a new collection, writers use fiction to explore nicotine and addiction. Don’t miss best-selling author Lee Child (The Nicotine Chronicles, editor), award-winning novelist Michael Connelly (Fair Warning), and Edgar Award–winning author Attica Locke (Heaven, My Home) for a discussion about mysteries, crime fiction, and the space between guilt and innocence. Moderated by Molly Odintz, senior editor of CrimeReads.

As recent but all too familiar events force the country to grapple with its legacy of violence and racism, igniting a hopeful movement for substantive change across government and within industries, it is vital to engage not only perennial questions about representational politics in publishing, but also the material and demographic inequities in the industry that enable the exclusion of many voices and experiences. Our panel of professionals, from publishers to writers, weighs in on the current state of publishing, remedies to inequity in all its forms, and ways to move forward towards a vibrant and more just industry. Reagan Arthur, Publisher, Knopf; Nicole Chung, writer and Editor-in-Chief of Catapult magazine; Erroll McDonald, Vice President, Executive Editor at Knopf and Pantheon; Luis Alberto Urrea, novelist, poet, and essayist will discuss what needs to be done to create effective change in a conversation moderated by Suzanne Nossel, Chief Executive Officer of PEN America.

Is it still possible to improve your lot in life??  Was it ever? Essayist Eula Biss (Having and Being Had), cultural historian Imani Perry (Breathe: A Letter to My Sons), journalist Ada Calhoun (Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis), and economist Stephanie Kelton (The Deficit Myth) discuss who is and isn’t able to prosper, what class feels like today, and how the answers to these questions are built into the very structure of our economy.

Children required to be mature beyond their years, adults seeking lives worth writing about, and other fascinating characters populate the exciting novels and stories of these award-winning authors. Join Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet (A Children’s Bible), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist Héctor Tobar (The Last Great Road Bum), and best-selling author Lidia Yuknavitch (Verge) to learn about the challenges and possibilities of life on the margins. Moderated by Ryan Chapman, author of Riots I Have Known.

An Iranian journalist heads to the front lines of war in Iraq and Syria. A girl and her father are the last two people on Earth. And in a town ravaged by environmental disaster, a cult leader promises to bring rain. Where can these characters find humanity in such dystopian worlds? Join novelist Salar Abdoh (Out of Mesopotamia), critically acclaimed debut author Chelsea Bieker (Godshot), and National Book Award finalist Andrew Krivak (The Bear) as they discuss art, love, and other methods of surviving the apocalypse. Moderated by Jonny Diamond, editor-in-chief of Literary Hub.

Corporate greed and extreme inequality loom large in these authors’ most recent books, which investigate the human implications of national politics through the lens of a marginalized immigrant family in one case and inter-class relationships in the other. Join Pulitzer Prize-winning author and playwright Ayad Akhtar (Homeland Elegies) and National Book Award finalist Emily St. John Mandel (The Glass Hotel) for a discussion about their latest novels. Moderated by Laura Marsh, literary editor of the New Republic.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Alexis Wright, two giants of contemporary literature, share creative visions that encompass millennia. For more than a half-century, Kenyan author Ngũgĩ  has been creating a highly-influential body of work ranging from novels, stories, plays, and memoir to radical essays on literary decolonization and language. His latest work, The Perfect Nine, marks something of a departure: a novel-in-verse that reimagines the origin story of the Gikuyu people of Kenya, blending folklore, mythology and allegory. Alexis Wright, a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, is a towering figure herself, whose 2007 Miles Franklin prize-winning novel, Carpenteria, remains a landmark in Indigenous literature. The Swan Book, her most recent novel, is set in the distant future, with Aboriginal peoples living in an environment altered by climate change, drawing powerfully from myth, legend and fairy tale. Moderated by Caro Llewellyn.

Childhood can seem to exist in a bubble, defined by the rituals of family and home. But outside pressures are never far off. In Romesh Gunesekera’s Suncatcher, a young boy in 1960s Sri Lanka revels in the thrill of the make-believe, while gradually becoming aware of the social and religious forces that threaten to divide the country. The protagonist of Ivan Vladislavic’s The Distance obsessively follows the career of boxing great Muhammad Ali in 1970s Pretoria, his hero-worship a form of defiance in apartheid-era South Africa. And in Suneeta Peres da Costa’s Saudade, the daughter of an Indian immigrant family in 1960s Angola learns to recognize the rumblings of a growing independence movement and end of colonial privilege. How are these different coming-of-ages marked by their own time and place, and what do they have in common? Moderated by Eric Banks, Director of the New York Institute for the Humanities.

What is a border and who or what are they meant to contain? Poets and writers Claudia Rankine (Just Us: An American Conversation), Cathy Park Hong (Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning), and New York Times culture writer Jenna Wortham (Black Futures) discuss borders and their many manifestations through genre, race and ethnicity, migration, the personal vs. political, and cultural vs. national identities. Moderated by Hafizah Geter, author of Un-American.

How will life in the pandemic define society or change it? Mark Honigsbaum (The Pandemic Century: 100 Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris), Paolo Giordano (How Contagion Works: Science, Awareness and Community in Times of Global Crisis), and Sonia Shah (Pandemic: Tracking Contagions from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond) discuss personal and political responses to the pandemic we are living through and contemplate the future. Is there a new normal? Moderated by Brian Tate, president of Tate Strategy.

From existential crises and trauma to months spent in quarantine, there are plenty of reasons one may feel the need to escape their family. Award-winning novelist Bernice L. McFadden (Sugar), New York Times best-selling author Emma Straub (All Adults Here), and critically acclaimed author Karolina Waclawiak (Life Events) discuss what happens when characters leave their comfort zones to encounter different ways of living. Moderated by Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox.

From humor to horror, from journalism to first-person POV, these authors explore connections between uprisings of the past and speaking out loud in the present day. Travel from the protests against war and incarceration in the 1970s with Jared Reinmuth (Big Black: Stand at Attica) and Derf Backderf (Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio) to present-day combat with everyday systemic aggressions visited on race and disability with A. Andrews (A Quick & Easy Guide to Sex and Disability) and Bianca Xunise (Be Gay Do Comics, Six Chix). Moderated by Matt Lubchansky, editor of The Nib.

A handsome baseball star, a Los Angeles talent manager who was in all the wrong places at all the wrong times, and a certain “nasty woman” who won a certain popular vote, reimagined through historical fiction—these characters prove that fame, in any field, has its price. Join celebrated writer and filmmaker Nelson George (The Darkest Hearts), debut novelist Emily Nemens (The Cactus League), and New York Times best-selling author Curtis Sittenfeld (Rodham) for a discussion of pop culture and politics. Moderated by Nicholas Mancusi, author of A Philosophy of Ruin.

Are we ready for this?​ Historian Carol Anderson (One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy), alongside former political consultant and Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson (Running Against the Devil) and New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman (Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College). Moderated by Errin Haines, editor at large and Founding Mother at The 19th.

Join The Vanishing Half author Brit Bennett and An American Marriage author Tayari Jones for a conversation about their timely works of fiction, which offer nuanced insights about race, family, and love in America. Moderated by David Ulin.

What are the histories we don’t hear? A jazz legend shines brightly during a dark time in his career; a mother tells moving stories of China’s Cultural Revolution to her daughter; and, in a master comics journalist’s latest epic, the Dene Nation of Canada’s sprawling Northwest Territories grapples with the economic reward and devastating cultural costs of development. Joe Sacco (Paying the Land), Dave Chisholm (Chasin’ the Bird: Charlie Parker in California), and Emei Burell (We Served the People) discuss bringing unseen or undertold history to light.

Even in prose, some narratives are best expressed through the rhythms and techniques of poetry. Through precise and artful language, these innovative and observant poets and authors explore the nature of time, the experience of consciousness, and the aftermath of history. Join award-winning poet Carolyn Forché (In the Lateness of the World), Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa (The Chameleon Couch), and critically acclaimed novelist Kate Zambreno (Drifts) for a discussion of their creative work. Moderated by Pitchaya Sudbanthad, author of Bangkok Wakes to Rain.

From an imagined New York City that literally comes alive, to an alternate American history that posits a militaristic Empire City, to the reality of police brutality on the streets of Los Angeles, these authors capture the essence of contemporary American urban life, along with its diversity, complexity, and flaws. Join Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalist Matt Gallagher (Empire City), Hugo Award–winning author N.K. Jemisin (The City We Became), and Ilube Nommo Award–winning author Tochi Onyebuchi (Riot Baby) as they mine the soul of the city. Moderated by Stephanie Anderson, assistant director of selection at BookOps.

Laughing Through Tears. A woman about to marry someone she doesn’t love. Gay men who can’t stop lying. A struggling writer’s desperate quest for connection. Black women who defy societal expectations to explore their dreams and desires. These characters may sound troubled, but what their authors have in common is a dark sense of humor when writing about love, sexuality, and getting older. Join award-winning author Marie-Helene Bertino (Parakeet), critically-acclaimed novelist Sarah Gerard (True Love), debut author Peter Kispert (I Know You Know Who I Am), and National Book Award long-lister Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies) discuss humor as a means to survival. Moderated by Kendall Storey, associate editor at Catapult.

We are living in an America that was, not very long ago, unimaginable to many of us: a country whose political life, economic prospects, and natural environment all resemble  something out of dystopian (or, in the case of the environment, science-fiction). This panel gathers together a varied group of frequent contributors to The New York Review of Books, representing the worlds of journalism, political commentary, and fiction, to grapple with the question of how those and other modes of writing might help us to envision still other versions of America. Join authors Hari Kunzru (Red Pill), Fintan O’Toole (The Politics of Pain), and Namwali Serpell (The Old Drift) for a conversation moderated by Madeleine Schwartz, creator of The Ballot, about the Americas that might have been—and might be still.

While the world faces unrest from a multitude of directions, in some countries it’s been part of their very foundation. These authors’ books meditate on dispossession, violence, and language in Palestine; familial ties and political murder in 1970s Congo; and the kidnapping of a Mexican student by unlikely gangsters before his flight abroad to Spain. Join novelists Adania Shibli (Minor Detail), Alain Mabanckou (The Death of Comrade President), and Juan Pablo Villalobos (I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me) as they discuss how the repercussions of violence are experienced on a literary level, and felt across generations and through history, and how the personal and political intersect in their works in both tragic and absurd ways. Moderated by Minna Zallman Proctor, author of Landslide: True Stories.

What do you draw on — literally — to put an imaginary world with real stakes on the graphic novel page? Carey Pietsch discusses pulling readers into the D&D world of the #1 New York Times best-selling Adventure Zone series; Isabel Greenberg’s Glass Town reveals how the Brontë children co-created a fictional world out of bereavement; Bishakh Som builds fantastic architecture from real lives in Spellbound and Apsara Engine; and Julia Gfrörer’s protagonist pulls a new life from a haunted mirror in Vision. Moderated by writer/artist Camilla Zhang.

What happens when the world comes to a standstill, touch is forbidden, and everything we’ve known must be reimagined? Who can we turn to? In what promises to be an entertaining and candid discussion, award-winning author Rochelle Alers (The Seaside Café), USA Today best-selling author Beverly Jenkins (Bring on the Blessings), and Wayne Jordan (Promise Me a Dream) reveal the secrets of what keeps them going during these uncertain times and why their novels of love, redemption, and hope are more important to us now more than ever before. Moderated by Donna Hill, author of The Other Sister.

Join Hallie Rubenhold, Baillie Gifford Prize-winning chronicler of the victims of Jack the Ripper, in conversation with Casey Cep, whose book on the courtroom drama of a 1970s serial killer, Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, was also shortlisted for the prize last year. They discuss their books, The Five and Furious Hours, and how the genre of true crime does not have to be sensationalist and can uncover hidden lives. The conversation is presented by the Baillie Gifford Prize and will be moderated by documentary maker Dr. Myriam Francois, who was a judge on the 2019 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction.

Eating today carries the weight of a myriad of environmental and social issues, and in doing so raises many questions about what it means to be a conscious and conscientious consumer, and the degree to which this is possible. This panel examines how we as eaters and cooks are complicit in these issues but also have the potential to help create change through our food choices. Examining farming, food deserts, consumerism and more, writers Tom Philpott (Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It), Saru Jayaraman (Bite Back: People Taking on Corporate Food and Winning), Marion Nestle (Let’s Ask Marion: What You Need to Know About the Politics of Food, Nutrition, and Health), and Deborah Madison (An Onion in My Pocket) will take a thoughtful look at hopeful trends and changing tides. Moderated by Krishnendu Ray, associate professor of Food Studies at NYU. 

From Massachusetts to the Middle East to colonial Jamaica, these books take readers around the world as their characters search for a way to live life on their own terms. Join debut novelists Zaina Arafat (You Exist Too Much) and Maisy Card (These Ghosts Are Family) and award-winning author Lily King (Writers & Lovers) for a conversation about the challenges and identities our homelands force upon us. Moderated by Alex Gilvarry, author of Eastman Was Here.

How is history lived and felt—embodied—in different times and places? How does it persist as memory, an almost tactile presence just beneath the surface? In Argentine writer Andrés Neuman’s Fracture, the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster provokes a personal reckoning for a globe-trotting Japanese executive, a survivor of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Jamaican writer Curdella Forbes’s A Tall History of Sugar charts her country’s evolution from independence to today through the life of a mysterious, clairvoyant child born with translucent skin, a human palimpsest who defies racial and social categories. Meanwhile, Mozambican author Mia Couto, winner of the 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, explores the final, nineteenth-century clashes of empire between Portuguese colonial forces and local rulers in The Sword and the Spear, shedding light, in the process, on Mozambique’s present legacy of violence and woe. Moderated by Rivka Galchen. 

Although these authors explore the tragedy of losing family members and friends, they also highlight the triumph of finding new life in the vacuums every loss leaves behind. Join debut novelist Ilana Masad (All My Mother’s Lovers), National Book Award–winning novelist Sigrid Nunez (What Are You Going Through), and National Humanities Medal recipient Joyce Carol Oates (Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars) as they discuss life after devastation. Moderated by MJ Franklin, editor at the New York Times Book Review.

Colson Whitehead and Arundhati Roy, two writers whose work has become powerfully embedded in our imagination over the past few decades, read from their recent work, followed by Q & A.  Whitehead, winner of the 2017 BoBi award, will read from his novel, The Nickel Boys, winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Roy, who since her 1997 Booker Prize-winning novel, The God of Small Things, has emerged as one of India’s fiercest and most prescient political essayists, will read from her new collection, Azadi: Freedom. Fascism. Fiction. Introduced by Anderson Tepper.

A student’s identity is at odds with his community. A teenage girl develops a relationship with her English teacher. Together, these authors raise questions about how conceptions of race, gender, class, and sexuality can shape ourselves and our relationships. Join debut novelists Kate Elizabeth Russell (My Dark Vanessa) and Brandon Taylor (Real Life) for a conversation about piercing taboos, moderated by Lila Shapiro, senior reporter at Vulture/New York Magazine. 

Writing down memories is an intimate act; drawing the remembered times is even more so, whether they’re yours or of those around you. Join these authors on the journey. Tyler Feder‘s Dancing at the Pity Party follows her journey dealing with her mother’s diagnosis and eventual death of cancer, while Mike Hawthorne’s Happiness Will Follow recalls growing up with a single mother and a Brujeria curse, and Yao Xiao’s Everything Is Beautiful And I’m Not Afraid, collecting her semiautobiographical comic Baopu, brings home a queer emigrant’s search for identity and connection. Moderated by Women Write About Comics editor-in-chief Nola Pfau.    

Care and Crisis through Theatre presented with the Whiting Foundation. Join us for a discussion with Will Arbery (Heroes of the Fourth Turning), Amy Herzog (4000 Miles), Lynn Nottage (Ruined, Sweat), and Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) – moderated by Soraya Nadia McDonald, award-winning cultural critic for The Undefeated, ESPN’s premiere platform covering race, sports, and culture — about the ways we take care of each other and ourselves during crisis, how theater can model or create those spaces for care, and the potential for care for one community to carry with it a blindness towards other communities.

TUI T. SUTHERLAND is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Wings of Fire series, the Menagerie trilogy, and the Pet Trouble series, as well as a contributing author to the bestselling Spirit Animals and Seekers series (as part of the Erin Hunter team). Join her as she reads from her just released new book, the 14th in the Wings of Fire series!

There are moments in the lives of countries and generations when the future appears to burn especially bright with hope and youthful promise. But what happens when dreams sour, when pioneering generations lurch into middle-age? Daniel Galera’s Twenty After Midnight follows a circle of literary provocateurs whose webzine revolutionized the internet and shook up Brazilian culture at the dawn of the new millennium. Now, 15 years later, they are left to reckon with death, disappointment, and a feeling of impending doom. Tsitsi Dangarembga’s This Mournable Body, shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, continues to follow the travails of Tambu, the Zimbabwean protagonist of Dangarembga’s classic 1980s novel, Nervous Conditions. Tambu, raised in colonial Rhodesia, is now a single woman navigating the obstacles of independent Harare, the ideals of the War of Liberation a distant memory. Both novels poignantly ask, Where have we gone wrong? Moderated by Anderson Tepper.

Leslie Stein‘s graphic memoir I Know You Rider takes place over the 12 month period surrounding an abortion, tackling the complex subject of reproductive choice —and choice more generally — candidly and philosophically. Adrian Tomine’s The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist is a comedic memoir about fandom, fame, and other embarrassments from the life of the New York Times bestselling author of Killing and Dying. Journalist and editor Nicole Rudick speaks to Stein and Tomine about their comics. 

Kimberly Drew, arts writer, curator, and activist, This Is What I Know About Art, in conversation with celebrated photographer, artist, curator and author, Deborah Willis talking about art as both a reflection on society and an opportunity to change society and make inclusive space for artists. Moderated by Naomi Extra, scholar, poet and writer.

Poet and activist Sonia Sanchez and Kevin Young (editor of African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song, October 2020) will read from their work, followed by a discussion.