Trans Voices in Horror, presented by Bloodletter Magazine and Lofty Pigeon Books
At a time when trans lives are increasingly at risk, Bloodletter Magazine leverages the power of poetry to alchemize horror into liberation. Showcasing work from Bloodletter’s first print anthology, Trans Voices in Horror, this reading and moderated panel will discuss the ways in which the trans experience informs the horror genre—as well as the other […]
Does Colonialism Ever End?
What does it mean to describe colonialism as past when its borders, hierarchies, violence, and silences continue to shape the present—and even imagined futures? Bringing together Karim Kattan’s Eden at Dawn, and Mahmud El Sayed’s The Republic of Memory, the authors examine literature’s power to expose the enduring structures of domination dating back to the […]
The Things We Inherit
The consequences of one generation’s choices can become the inheritance of the next. In De’Shawn Charles Winslow’s The Fervent Whites, the return of a couple wrongfully imprisoned for murder unsettles a Hudson Valley community. In Harriet Clark’s The Hill, a young girl grows up visiting her mother in prison, caught between a grandmother who condemns […]
Survive, Salvage and Protest: Comics and the Climate
Young people today know that climate change is altering the world before their eyes. What will the future world look like—and will we survive? In her YA science-fiction graphic novel Salvage, Renée Nault depicts a class-stratified future megacity traversed by carefree technocratic children even as the outskirts of the city scrape by on salvaging and […]
Unbridled
Some feelings resist containment. Left unbridled, they can drive a person to decisions that feel inevitable in the moment and unrecognizable in hindsight. In Quiara Alegría Hudes’ The White Hot, a single mother’s all-consuming rage starts to appear in her young daughter and triggers only one response: to leave her child. In Morgan Thomas’ Mad […]
Dissidents and Movements: Being Part of the Solution
Authoritarianism thrives on fear, silence, and conformity. Breaking that gridlock requires both individual courage and collective strategy. Join Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer (On Courage: How To Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear), Jelani Cobb (Three of More Is a Riot: Notes on How We Got Here), and Anand Gopal (Days of Love […]
The Women Who Shape Us
Mothers and their proxies tend to take on the bulk of directing a child’s life, which can lead to fraught relationships, atypical life lessons, and disappointment in the unexpected direction their child pursues. In Jordy Rosenberg’s Night Night Fawn, Barbara Rosenberg reflects on her life and failed guidance of her gender-nonconforming child, who is taking […]
What the Past Refuses to Bury
Some histories don’t fall behind, they cling. In Amitav Ghosh’s Ghost-Eye, a young girl’s memories of another life draw a psychologist, her family, and a new generation into a mystery connecting past and present. In Melissa Faliveno’s Hemlock, a woman returns to the Wisconsin woods where her mother vanished and finds herself confronting an inheritance […]
You Then, Me Now
Some friendships feel like they’ll last forever—until they reach a breaking point. In Stephanie Wambugu’s Lonely Crowds, two girls initially bonded together by rough upbringings have their friendship tested decades later as they enter the competitive art world of New York City in the 90s. In Emily Nemens’ Clutch, five best friends of two decades […]
Around Asia and Back: A Reading in Harlem (In Person)
Four Asian authors bring news of the world: Singapore, Malaysia, Pakistan, Japan, and South Africa. Yu-Mei Balasingamchow (Names Have Been Changed), Sharmini Aphrodite (The Unrepentant), Roohi Choudhry (Outside Women), and Jee Leong Koh (To the Tune) read from their new books and discuss their writing as it relates to place, identity, migration, and resistance. Silvana […]
Disruptive Love
International authors Yang Shuang-zi (Taiwan Travelogue, translated by Lin King), Claire Adam (Love Forms), and Justin Haynes (Ibis) discuss writing love in its most complex manifestations. From the disrupted intimacies between a young traveler and her interpreter in Japanese-controlled Taiwan, to the fractured maternal love of a young woman forced to give up her baby […]
Alison Bechdel & Diane DiMassa In Conversation
Giants of queer cartooning, Alison Bechdel and Diane DiMassa have lived through and responded to decades of warmongering, anti-feminist rhetoric, and oppression. Diane DiMassa’s Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist, released this year in a new edition from New York Review of Books, was a steam release valve for zine readers in the late 1980s to […]
Portraits of the Everyday
Between imagining the varieties of life’s circumstances, embodying the perspectives of numerous people, and capturing the distinctly human emotions amidst it all, join Ed Park (An Oral History of Atlantis: Stories), Lynne Tillman (Thrilled to Death: Selected Stories), and Jared Lemus (Guatemalan Rhapsody: Stories) as they delve into what writing short stories means to them. […]
Life On Your Terms or Mine?
Whether it’s unexpected propositions, social upheaval, or the passage of time, life is an unending crisis of choice versus obligation. Angela Flournoy’s The Wilderness follows four friends as they navigate estrangement, unexpected pregnancy, going viral, and pursuing their dreams independently. In Ada Calhoun’s Crush, the nameless narrator undergoes an extramarital emotional affair after her husband suggests […]
Love is in the Air (Literally)
Sometimes, all you need to find love is to look up. In Marcy Dermansky’s Hot Air, a childhood crush turned billionaire crash-lands his hot-air balloon into a first date. In Kate Folk’s Sky Daddy, a woman’s weekly flights mean a new date with a handsome stranger– the plane itself. In Emily Hamilton’s The Stars Too […]
Secrets of the Stacks: Where Painting and Sculpture Meet Books
New York is world-famous for its museums and art collections, offering an unrivaled visual experience. Those institutions house equally spectacular libraries of books, monographs and printed material related to artists, their creative processes and their lives. Join Ivy Blackman (Whitney Museum of American Art), Stephen Bury (The Frick Collection) and Bridget O’Keefe (MoMA) for a […]
Story and Sovereignty
Native and Indigenous writers come together to discuss creating within a settler-colonial framework, foregrounding ancestral modes of storytelling and thought in support of Indigenous sovereignty. With Chris La Tray (Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home), an Anishinaabe/Métis storyteller and a citizen of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Joseph Lee (Nothing More […]
Mapping History and Its Fault Lines
How do you make sense of the hidden rifts and fractures in a country’s past? How do you read the warning signs? The Cartographer of Absences, by Mozambican writer Mia Couto (translated by David Brookshaw), unearths long-buried secrets of colonial-era atrocities. Geetanjali Shree’s Our City that Year (translated by Daisy Rockwell), explores the underground tensions—and […]
Brooklyn’s Biggest Fall Reading Party is Here – And You’re Invited! (In Person)
Connect with fellow book lovers at an outdoor reading party hosted by Reading Rhythms, City Point, and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership! Enjoy quality time to read in the iconic Abolitionist Place, with live ambient music and the chance to meet others who share your love of books. Bring any book you love—paperback, hardcover, or digital—and settle […]
The Stories of a People, A Language, a Place…
Where better than a library to hold and embody the countless stories that make up a culture? Join Susan Bronson, from the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst MA, Shawn Iwaoka from the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, and Susan A. Fletcher, from the McCracken Research Library in Cody, WY for a conversation about […]
Who? New! International
Each season, BKBF presents several international debut authors whom we want to shine the light on for our audience. This year we present Palestinian writer and journalist Yasmin Zaher (The Coin), British Sri Lankan writer Praveen Herat (Between This World and the Next), and Malaysian Australian creative writing instructor Jessica Zhan Mei Yu (But the […]
History in Comics
Graphic novels excel at bringing human history to visual life, but there’s much more to the process than simply picturing the past. Glynnis Fawkes (1177 B.C.: A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed) puts on her archaeologist’s hat to adapt Eric Cline’s award-winning book; John Vasquez Mejias expands his parents’ stories of a 1950 […]
Dreaming of Freedom: How We Move Beyond an Expanding Police State
With “robot dogs” at the border, automated surveillance, and arbitrary decisions controlling probation and parole, a system of policing and punishment seems less concerned with fairness or safety than with social control. What does it all have to do with justice? Join sociologist Ruha Benjamin (author of Imagination: A Manifesto), journalist Ben Austen (Correction: Parole, […]
Four Hundred Years of Latino Poetry presented by BPL and Library of America.
In this high-wattage panel discussion celebrating the new Library of America anthology Latino Poetry, anthology editor Rigoberto González and contributors Yesenia Montilla and Darrel Alejandro Holnes will discuss the political and poetic geographies of Latino identity and culture in and beyond New York and how these relate to their own work and trajectory. They will […]
When Worlds Collide
New York Times bestselling author Amélie Wen Zhao (Song of Silver, Flame Like Night), New York Times bestselling author Dustin Thao (When Haru was Here) and Pura Belpré honoree Camille Gomera-Tavarez (The Girl, The Ring, & The Baseball Bat) discuss how they tackle dreams, grief, epic battles, and relationships in alternate worlds that straddle reality […]
The Nature of a Crime
In False Idols, the second novel of A Reluctant King series, K’wan explores the intersection of crime and power with the King family’s fight to reclaim their throne in the criminal underworld. Kate Brody’s Rabbit Hole follows a woman twisted by grief as she risks it all to solve her sister’s cold case disappearance. In […]
Containing Multitudes: Memoirs of Self-Realization
Beyond just chronicling a life, the memoir has long been a site for the discussion of self-realization and discovery, of inquisition and reckoning. In each of their books, Tracy O’Neill (Woman of Interest), Lucy Sante (I Heard Her Call My Name), and Carvell Wallace (Another Word for Love) explore themselves on the page, digging into […]
A New Kind of Hunger
Flawed, sharp, and messy characters on journeys of self-discovery and indulging in sexually explicit love affairs. Two women bond over their shared desire for pain and pleasure in Exhibit by R.O. Kwon. In Tongues by Thomas Grattan follows a young gay man who moves to NYC after a bad breakup, where he gets hired as […]
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror: Memoirs by Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Safiya Sinclair and Phillip Lopate
Presented with Brooklyn Public Library’s BPL Presents, three authors discuss new memoirs. Interweaving family stories more enchanting than those in any novel, Ingrid Rojas Contreras writes, in The Man Who Could Move Clouds, a luminous testament to the power of storytelling as a healing art and an invitation to embrace the extraordinary. How to Say […]
Poets on Love, Sex & Desire
Poets Richie Hofmann (A Hundred Lovers), Cyrée Jarelle Johnson (Slingshot), José Olivarez (Promises of Gold), and Maggie Millner (Couplets) read from their work and discuss desire, the sublime, and heartbreak. Moderated by Parker Menzimer, Poetry Society of America.
Books Unbanned: A Night of Artivism (In Person)
Books Unbanned: A Night of Artivism is an afterparty with a purpose featuring live performances from acclaimed artists, activists and actors! The event will feature special guest authors including Ibram Kendi, Michael Harriot, Dr. Kaye Whitehead and more. Hosted by author and AAPF Executive Director Kimberle Crenshaw, the event will also feature music by a […]
History Redux and Myths Retold
Whether it’s disrupting long-held belief systems or accepted historical narratives, three writers challenge readers to reconsider what we think we know. In ten books and 91 chapters, Eve decides it’s time to tell her version of the story of Genesis in Carmen Boullosa’s The Book of Eve (translated by Samantha Schnee). While in Leila Aboulela’s […]
Walter Mosley and Joyce Carol Oates: In Conversation
Two of the most formidable writers of our time appear in conversation about their life’s work, exploring the creative impulse, writing across genres, and the constant tension between good and evil. In Joyce Carol Oates’ short story collection Zero-Sum, the mystery of interior life manifests in characters striving for both vengeance and seduction. In Touched, […]
History, Violence, Fantasy, Fate: Ariel Dorfman and Mariana Enriquez in Conversation
In this virtual conversation, widely acclaimed Latin American writers Ariel Dorfman and Mariana Enriquez convene to discuss their literary obsessions and most recent publications. Ariel Dorfman’s newest book, The Suicide Museum, pushes readers to reconsider their understanding of the novel as a genre, as it moves deftly from an engrossing investigation of the death of […]
Baby Dearest
Four novelists grapple with motherhood and the complex web of emotions – revulsion, rebellion, reconciliation, and redemption – it engenders. Susie Boyt (Loved and Missed), Kate Briggs (The Long Form), and Guadalupe Nettel (Still Born, translated by Rosalind Harvey) discuss the fall out and growth of their characters as they embrace or reject social expectations and […]
Tech Tales
Three visionary authors gather to unravel tales of love, the dance between humanity and technology, and fantastical realms that expand the imagination. In Gina Chung’s Sea Change, a young woman develops a deep connection to an octopus that might be her last conduit to her scientist father. And Daniel Hornsby fuses tech, grift, and horror […]
Fear and Fantasy (Masks Required)
Three wishes sold at a Cairo kiosk force their buyers to face their personal struggles; disaffected video game inventors watch their invention warp fantasy into reality; and a young, queer artist tries to reconcile his childhood memories with his deepest desires and fears while navigating Beirut’s vibrant underground scene. Deena Mohamed (Shubeik Lubeik), Joseph Kai […]
A Big Crime in a Small Town
In Andrea Bartz’s The Spare Room, a potentially fatal tryst unfolds in a remote Virginia mansion after a married couple invites a friend into their home. In Dwyer Murphy’s The Stolen Coast, two old flames embark on a million-dollar diamond heist amid the seaside cottages of coastal Massachusetts. In S.A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed, […]
Secrets, Lies, and Deadly Consequences
A body found in the woods in a ripped-from-the-headlines tale, a dangerous game—and attraction—you can’t refuse, and dark academia with enticing but possibly fatal outcomes… get ready to be pulled in and entangled by these thrillers from Mark Oshiro (Into the Light), Gail-Agnes Musikavanhu (Ride or Die), and Joelle Wellington (Their Vicious Games). Moderated by […]
From Mississippi to Minneapolis: A Continuum of White Violence
In their 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning His Name Is George Floyd, Washington Post journalists Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa contextualize Floyd’s life and death, looking at the story of the man—whose 2020 killing sparked the largest protests ever against racial injustice—through the critical lens of white supremacy past and present. Now, in this wide-ranging discussion led […]
History Redux and Myths Retold
Whether it’s disrupting long-held belief systems or accepted historical narratives, three writers challenge readers to reconsider what we think we know. In ten books and 91 chapters, Eve decides it’s time to tell her version of the story of Genesis in Carmen Boullosa’s The Book of Eve (translated by Samantha Schnee). While in Leila Aboulela’s […]
Poets on Love, Sex & Desire
Poets Richie Hofmann (A Hundred Lovers), Cyrée Jarelle Johnson (Slingshot), José Olivarez (Promises of Gold), and Maggie Millner (Couplets) read from their work and discuss desire, the sublime, and heartbreak. Moderated by Parker Menzimer, Poetry Society of America.
Can Science Fiction Change the World? (Virtual)
For decades, science fiction has heralded imaginative worlds, opened portals to multiple universes, and invented life and sentience in the unlikeliest of places. Through such rich worldbuilding, the genre has also offered a portentous sneak-peak at civilization’s progress: aggressive climate crises, technological advancement, increased isolation, autocratic governments. Yet, the genre has never been more popular […]
Lab[our] Issue Launch (In Person)
In partnership with the Brooklyn Book Festival, Lampblack invites you to share in the launch of our third volume: Lab[our]. Merchandise and copies of the issue will be available for purchase, along with drinks at the Center for Fiction café. There will be live readings from the magazine, featuring t’ai freedom ford, James Stewart III, […]