Astro-Nuts Mission 3: The Perfect Planet with Jon Scieszka & Steven Weinberg
They’re back! The four wacky super-powered Animal Astronauts–AlphaWolf, SmartHawk, LaserShark, and StinkBug–return for their final daring adventure. Join Jon Scieszka & Steven Weinberg for a truly out-of-this-world, and a mostly scientifically-accurate-and-true expose of the secret NNASA (NOT-NASA) program to find a Goldilocks Planet for every human on Earth!
Storytime and Drawing with Nikki Grimes and Brian Pinkney
Join Nikki Grimes and Brian Pinkney for A Walk in the Woods. Author Nikki Grimes will lead a storytime and share how the picture book came to be. Co-illustrator Brian Pinkney will then lead attendees in a map-drawing activity, encouraging them to find treasure in their own backyard.
What’s in Your Head?
Join Brazilian author Ana Matsusaki for a captivating reading of The Collector of Heads. After the storytime, kids are invited to an introspective exploration of their own heads through an imaginative art activity inspired by the artwork of the book, combining drawing and collage.
An Adventure to Remember
Can Navajo stepsiblings take down a dangerous Water Monster? What is causing a mysterious memory swap between two strangers? Will a magical medieval kingdom accept a nonbinary knight? And can a young boy survive the new friends, classes, and experiences that accompany the first year of middle school? Join Emmy Award–nominated creator Jorge Cham (Oliver’s […]
Storytime: Breaking to the Beat! by Linda J. Acevedo
It’s the Bronx in the 1970s, and new dance rhythms like Toprock, Drop of the Six-step, and Wiggle of the Worm are on the rise. For Manolo, a shy boy, this new dance style called breaking is motivation to overcome his insecurities. Linda J. Acevedo’s energetic debut picture book is an ode to the Hip […]
The Joy of Disobedience
From Hollywood to Capri, the lives of women artists and creators are reimagined in historical novels by Selby Wynn Schwartz (After Sappho) and Gail Tsukiyama (The Brightest Star). Schwartz crafts vignettes of the intertwined lives of feminists at the turn of the twentieth century who put down their needlepoint to forge a new creative and […]
Who Am I?
Three novelists tackle the fraught and sometimes harrowing journey of characters striving to define life on their own terms. In Sadeqa Johnson’s The House of Eve, two teenagers seek a new life but struggle to escape the confines of the past and future; in Ruth Madievsky’s All-Night Pharmacy, a sister experiences freedom and guilt after […]
Distant Fathers, Distant Stars
Remote and enigmatic father figures exert powerful gravitational pulls in the new novels by Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård (The Wolves of Eternity, translated by Martin Aitken) and Zimbabwean Novuyo Rosa Tshuma (Digging Stars). What mysteries are contained in the lives of these men—and how do the stars and solar system provide a key to […]
Haunting Testimony
Poets LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs (Village), Rigoberto González (To the Boy Who Was Night), Sally Wen Mao (The Kingdom of Surfaces), and Courtney Faye Taylor (Concentrate) read from their work and discuss how the poem can serve as an archive of personal and political hauntings and history. Moderated by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, Academy of American […]
Barbara Brandon-Croft and Darrin Bell In Conversation
In the hugely popular field of syndicated comics, Barbara Brandon-Croft and Darrin Bell are trailblazers. Barbara Brandon-Croft is the first Black female cartoonist to be distributed nationally by a major syndicate; Darrin Bell, the first African-American cartoonist to have two strips syndicated nationally, is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist. Join them for an epic […]
Out of This World
Get whisked away to new worlds with renowned Omar Epps and Clarence A. Haynes (co-authors of the Nubia series) and bestselling author Kendare Blake (Anna Dressed in Blood) as they discuss the craft of writing fantasy novels—from an epic saga set in a climate-ravaged New York to a sweeping romance about a boy who hunts […]
Whispers of Humanity
This panel brings together authors who illuminate the complexities and nuances of existence through carefully crafted short stories. Jamel Brinkley and his collection Witness unveils the heartbeat of New York City, friendships, grief, and the quest for home. Jai Chakrabarti’s A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness navigates the dynamic of cultures and the transformative […]
Embrace the Unconventional: Reclaiming Your Freedom
This panel brings together the imaginative minds of Jenny Odell and Jessica Elefante as they challenge the norms of this disjointed era. Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell is a daring inspection of liberation from the clock’s constraints, while Jessica Elefante’s Raising Hell, Living Well: Freedom from Influence in a […]
Secrets of the Stacks 2023
The natural world, music and cultural heritage reside in the striking and unique library collections found in some of New York City’s top cultural institutions. Join Rhonda Evans, Director, Mertz Library at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, the largest botanical research library, in the U.S; Dr. John O’Neill, Curator of Rare Books […]
NBF Presents: What Comes After the Debut
Join National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honorees Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Friday Black; Chain Gang All Stars), Alexandra Chang (Days of Distraction; Tomb Sweeping), and C Pam Zhang (How Much of These Hills Is Gold; Land of Milk and Honey) to celebrate the recent publication of their second books. The authors discuss what it means […]
Origin Stories (In Person)
Origin Stories aren’t just for superheroes. This reading from St. Francis College MFA faculty and students will feature an exciting lineup of writers reflecting on their own origin stories as writers, as well as the origin stories of their writing. Writers, authors, and poets Clarence A. Haynes, Jive Poetic, Keyshawn Griffith, Marielena Gomez, Caroline Hagood, […]
