Re-enacting, Revisiting History
History can appear in different guises in novels—as historical setting, archival material, or storylines evoking past traumas. In Jeyamohan’s White Elephant (trans. Priyamvada Ramkumar), a nineteenth-century rebellion is captured against the backdrop of colonial rule in India; while Cristina Rivera Garza’s The Autobiography of Cotton (trans. Christina MacSweeney), weaves family history and historical records to […]
How to Build A Fascist-Free Future: Lessons from the Past, Encouragement for the Present
Join National Book Award-winner Ibram X. Kendi (Chain of Ideas), movement leader Yotam Marom (For Louder Days), and journalist Osita Nwanevu (The Right of The People), in a wide-ranging discussion of our perilous national moment, what we can do to secure a brighter future, and how each of us plays a part in doing so. […]
Future Ancestors
Poets Fatimah Asghar (Daughter of the Mountains), Diamond Forde (The Book of Alice), Naomi Shihab Nye (Sidekick), and Meghan O’Rourke (Sun In Days) read and consider the futures we can imagine and carry forward or transform for those who come after us. Moderated by Hafizah Augustus Geter.
Solitary Paths
Three acclaimed novelists explore solitude, freedom, and self-invention. Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny follows two young people across India, Vermont, and New York City as they navigate family ties, social class, and the pursuit of happiness. Yu-Mei Balasingamchow’s Names Have Been Changed traces a fugitive’s journey from Singapore to a life on […]
When Worlds Collide: How the NYC Underground Rewrote Global Culture
What happens when Uptown rhyming meets Downtown noise? Join legendary visual artist, filmmaker, and cultural pioneer Fab 5 Freddy, whose brand-new memoir Everybody’s Fly drops readers directly into the birth of hip-hop and the East Village art explosion, and Gillian McCain, co-author of the seminal punk oral history Please Kill Me, which is celebrating its […]
Under Your Boot Soles: Catching Up With Walt Whitman (In Person)
“I am with you,” Walt Whitman pledged in “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”. For this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival, performer Todd Blakesley sees to it that Brooklyn’s Literary Grandfather is true to his words! Meet Whitman’s modern-day incarnation, who will recite favorite poems and discuss the connections between his turbulent times and our own. This historic encounter […]
Between Earth and Water: Readings on Migration, Belonging, and Survival (In Person)
What does it mean to live between worlds—between countries, languages, identities, and selves? On September 20th, Sunday Salon NYC presents Between Earth and Water, a reading featuring four writers whose new and recent work explores migration, belonging, the body, and survival across borders and generations. Spanning hybrid memoir, poetry, fiction, and narrative nonfiction, their work […]
Literature, Resistance, Survival
Three writers explore art, resistance, and survival under oppressive regimes. Jeremy Tiang (State of Emergency) follows the political upheavals of Singapore and Malaysia from the 1940s to the present through the intertwined lives of one family; Emmelie Prophète (Cécé) captures the stark realities of a young woman navigating gang-controlled neighborhoods and violence in contemporary Haiti; […]
New Forms of Heartbreak
Whether love fosters recovery, discovery, or resilience – it’s messy. In Katie Yee’s Maggie, or a Man and Woman Walk Into A Bar, a woman grapples with the end of a marriage due to an affair during a breast cancer diagnosis, where she reflects on the relationship in conversation with her tumor that she names […]
The Whiting Foundation Presents: Early Inspirations
Whiting grantees Aria Aber (Good Girl), Aaliyah Bilal (Temple Folk), Liza Birkenmeier (Grief Hotel), and Nicholas Boggs (Baldwin: A Love Story) for a conversation about the lasting influence of home and youth on their work. The event is presented in partnership with the Whiting Foundation, and will be moderated by Whiting Award-winning playwright, Donnetta Lavinia […]
Branching Out: On the Future of Environmental Storytelling, presented by Orion Magazine
In the past few decades, what we traditionally think of as “nature writing” has undergone a notable and necessary shift—in the voices that participate in the conversation; in the relationship between nature writing and other literary genres; and even in what counts as an “environment” worthy of our attention. Nonfiction writers and Orion contributors Leslie […]
A Prophet of One’s Own
In Jess Walter’s So Far Gone, a hermit-like retired journalist is forced to confront the radically alien beliefs of his former son-in-law, who has joined the Church of the Blessed Fire, a feeder organization for a far-right militia group. In Karen Russell’s The Antidote, the Prairie Witch is the communal balm her Nebraska townspeople need […]
It’s Puzzling: The Power of Crosswords and Games, presented by NYU
There’s more to puzzles than fun and games (though they are definitely fun and challenging). Join Barry Joseph, author of Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Puzzles and Games of the Broadway Legend, and Juliana Pache, author and creator of Black Crossword: 100 Mini Puzzles Connecting the African Diaspora, for a conversation taking a deeper look at the cultural significance of games and […]
The Power of Staying and the Power of Parting (In Person)
Three writers share intimate portraits of the ways mental illness and traumatic family dysfunction deeply impacted their lives. Meet Eamon Dolan, Executive Editor at Simon & Schuster and author of The Power of Parting: Finding Peace and Freedom Through Family Estrangement; Meg Kissinger, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of the bestselling memoir, While You Were […]
Sports, Body, and Power
There was a time when YA sports adventures were hampered by outdated gender norms and social expectations. Those days are gone, and Jonah Newman (Out Of Left Field), Molly Horton Booth (King Cheer), and Mad Rupert (Bunt!) are upping the game with their new graphic novels that celebrate the joys of baseball, softball, basketball, and […]
Archives of the Self
In what ways does reckoning with our personal and political histories and archives allow us to reckon with ourselves? New works by Iman Mersal (Traces of Enayat, trans Robin Moger), Daniel Saldaña Paris (Planes Flying Over a Monster, trans Christina MacSweeney and Philip K. Zimmerman), Kateřina Tučková (The Last Goddess, trans Andrew Oakland), and Mircea […]
Secrets and the Supernatural
In the trilogy’s conclusion, Olivie Blake’s The Atlas Complex, the Alexandrians return to the library in a race for survival, power grabs, and betrayal. In Graveyard Shift, M.L. Rio follows five night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the truths lurking in an open grave. In The Sapling Cage, Margaret Killjoy […]
Love Is A Fantasy
Go on an epic journey with renowned authors Adrienne Tooley (The Second Son), Ava Reid (A Study in Drowning), Chloe Gong (Foul Heart Huntsman), and Jordan Ifueko (The Maid and the Crocodile) as they discuss the elements that make up a thrilling and swoon-worthy romantasy novel–from a sapphic romance to a gothic Welsh fantasy to […]
Debt, Solidarity, and Economic Justice presented by the Brooklyn Law School
A conversation about the legal, political, and economic forces shaping debt markets and horizons for change and the abolition of debt featuring: Luke Messac (Your Money or Your Life: Debt Collection in American Medicine), Chrystin Ondersma (Dignity Not Debt: An Abolitionist Approach to Economic Justice), Melissa Jacoby (Unjust Debts: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America […]
Our Neck of the Woods
Join three authors whose books pulsate with hope, love, and human connection. The pandemic sets the stage for Regina Porter’s The Rich People Have Gone Away, where ordinary New Yorkers are brought together by the search for a missing woman. Lisa Ko’s Memory Piece follows three lifelong friends from the 1980s to the 2040s as […]
Books Unbanned: Protecting the Freedom to Learn presented by the African American Policy Forum (AAPF)
The surprising rise of censorship in this country is a mounting threat to our democracy. Books by people of color and about racial justice have been among the most often banned titles in the last few years. To commemorate the first day of Banned Book Week, AAPF’s “Books UnbannedTM” tour, in partnership with The New Republic’s “Banned in […]
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, […]
The Found Family
In three vibrant, heartfelt new graphic novels ranging from witty autobiography to ensemble comedy to indie rock band tour diary comics, Julia Wertz (Impossible People), Leslie Stein (Brooklyn’s Last Secret), and Archie Bongiovanni (Mimosa) explore the many definitions of chosen family, how those families put us to the test, and how we in turn test […]
On the Cancel Culture Spectrum
We all have been disappointed, dismayed or angry with creators, leaders and celebrities whose work we admire, but whose personal actions are inappropriate, reprehensible, or worse. But, as individuals, we are responsible to activate the cancel culture spectrum from punishment to redemption and need to consider ramifications. Is accountability the middle ground? Ernest Owens, The […]
Reclaiming Power Through Collective Resistance and Law presented by the Brooklyn Law School
How do ordinary people claim democratic power in a world of increased inequality and loss? Join us for a conversation about power, democracy, race, and the law as three leading thinkers discuss their new books. Jocelyn Simonson (Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People are Dismantling Mass Incarceration) explores how groups of people are engaging […]
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 […]
Exploring Literary South Street Seaport with the Walt Whitman Initiative! (In-Person)
5pm Seaport Walking Tour CANCELLED 5-6:30pm Enjoy extra Open House Hours at the WWI Tane Poetry Library! Enjoy a visit to WWI’s Tane Poetry Library, where Curator/Librarian Jay Sherry and Assistant Librarian Emerald Sanjuro will introduce the collection and our cozy reading space. WWI Tane Poetry Library at Fulton Stall Market, 91 South Street, New […]