Banned, Challenged, Defended: Librarians Speak Out (Virtual)
Book challenges and bans continue to shape libraries and communities nationwide. Join librarians for a candid conversation about intellectual freedom, censorship, and the realities of responding to book challenges. Drawing on their professional experiences, they will discuss how librarians balance access, community concerns, and the freedom to read while serving the public. Moderated by Kate […]
Pink Crime: How the Law Is Punishing Pregnancy, Motherhood, and Gender Identity (In Person)
This event celebrates the release of the book Pink Crime: Fighting Against the Criminalization of Motherhood, Pregnancy, and Gender Identity (The New Press, August 2026). The panel will feature the book’s author, Professor Valena Beety, and Tasha Mercedez Shelby, a writer and advocate. These speakers will be in conversation with Brooklyn Law School Professor Kate […]
Literature as Lifeline: Why Writing Sustains Us in Difficult Times (In Person)
Why does fiction—even dark fiction—feel like a lifeline when the world turns turbulent? This panel brings together four Stony Brook University MFA writers whose work pans our darkest times for gold: Robert Lopez (Part of the World; Dispatches from Puerto Nowhere), Joseph Levens (Unearthed), debut novelist Meryl Branch-McTiernan (What You Should Worry About), and novelist […]
Celebrating Women-Owned Black Bookstores (In Person)
Join the Center for Black Literature as we celebrate Women-Owned Black Bookstores. Inspired by the NYC Black-Owned Women Book Store Crawl, held in March 2026, the Center for Black Literature is proud to celebrate these remarkable women-owned bookstores that continue to enrich New York’s literary and cultural landscape. Brooklyn is home to an incredible network […]
Read the World A to Z Launch Celebration (In Person)
Travel the globe with the most influential voices from Argentina to Zambia! Translation press World Editions partners with Rabbit Books & Bar and BKBF to launch Read the World A to Z, a series of 26 translated novels, one country for every letter of the alphabet—the first three from Argentina, Belgium, and China. Celebrate with […]
Traveling While Black: Black Women on Identity, Travel, Belonging, and Finding Home (In Person)
What does it mean for Black women to search for home across countries, memories, relationships, and within themselves? Join authors Ebony Walden and Chet’la Sebree for an intimate conversation on identity, belonging, and finding home. Moderated by Dr. Princess “Franny” Francois, this discussion explores how movement, travel, and lived experience shape who we become. The […]
Beyond the Acclaimed Debut (In Person)
The John Leonard Prize celebrates the year’s best first book. Incredible attention is lavished upon debut authors, but once it’s time to get back to work, how do acclaimed writers work within the limelight and around expectation to carry on with their careers? 2024 Leonard Prize finalist Carrie Courogen (Miss May Does Not Exist), 2024 […]
St. Francis College New Releases (In Person)
This event will feature new releases in various genres and exciting work from St. Francis College faculty and students. Get ready to be transported through time and space by these lively narratives. Readers will include Theo Gangi, Caroline Hagood, Jive Poetic, Mitchell Levenberg, Jason Dubow, Marielena Gomez, and Clarence A. Haynes. St Francis College Auditorium […]
Ctrl+Alt+Lit: Fan Fiction, Zines, and Independent Literature (In Person & Virtual)
From Tumblr threads to self-published novels, alternative literature is rewriting how we tell stories and who gets to tell them. Ctrl+Alt+Lit will explore how alt-lit remixes cultural narratives and creates community beyond traditional publishing, diving into a world shaped by parasocial relationships, the internet, and all of the media therein, including fan fiction, zines, newsletters, […]
Tipsy Bee Author Spelling Bee & Book Fair (In Person)
The Tipsy Bee returns with our grown-up spelling bee! Root for your favorite authors – Abraham Chang, Erin Crosby Eckstine, Danny Goodman, Elyse Graham, Jakob Guanzon, and Olivia Wolfgang-Smith – as they try to spell literary-inspired words. Last year’s champ Hyeseung Song will be there as an official lifeline for struggling spellers. As the featured […]
EVENT UPDATE: SOLD OUT: 2025 Day of Translation: Keynote Conversation with Jhumpa Lahiri and Katie Kitamura (In Person)
The 2025 Day of Translation, presented by the Center for the Art of Translation, culminates in a keynote conversation featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jhumpa Lahiri and bestselling author Katie Kitamura. Translation, broadly conceived, lies at the heart of Jhumpa Lahiri and Katie Kitamura’s work. For Lahiri, translation is more than an art; it’s a profound […]
Voices from the Margins (Virtual)
Join the Center for Black Literature virtually as we engage with contributors from the anthology We Refuse to Be Silent: Women’s Voices on Justice for Black Men. Editor Angela P. Dodson will be in conversation with Gloria J. Browne-Marshall and Nicole Bailey-Williams on their respective pieces “Why They Kill Us” and “Education as Activism.” This […]
No Cop City, No Cop World: Lessons from the Movement from Atlanta to NYC (In Person)
Join us as we celebrate the release of No Cop City, No Cop World: Lessons from the Movement, a collection of essays published in May 2025 by Haymarket Books. The event will bring together co-editors and contributors to the book, along with organizers from Atlanta and NYC. Discussion will focus on the movements for environmental […]
The Girl Before Her with Line Papin and Jean Chen Ho (In Person)
Translated into English from French by Adriana Hunter and Lylan Dill, Line Papin‘s The Girl Before Her is described by Viet Thanh Nguyen (The Sympathizer) as “A fable, a dream, a nightmare, … a sharp little book that fits like a wedge between the ribs.” Join Kaya Press for an event featuring Papin in conversation […]
Fierce Reads Presents: The Thrills and Chills Tour (In Person)
From seemingly prestigious boarding schools filled with malicious forces to cutthroat competitions and dark magic in the catacombs of Paris, these young adult authors know how to keep you up at night! Join Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (Ace of Spades), Jamison Shea (I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me), Tomi Oyemakinde (The Changing […]
Beyond the Acclaimed Debut (In Person)
The John Leonard Prize celebrates the year’s best first book. Incredible attention is lavished upon debut authors (the nominees and winners of this prize can attest), but once it’s time to get back to work, how do acclaimed writers work within the limelight and around expectation to carry on with their careers? 2022 finalist Zain […]
A Night of Ancient Mystery, Mozart, & Merriment (In Person)
Please join the Coffee House Club’s Urbane Conspirators and HIP Lit for an unforgettable night cloaked in Gothic suspense as mysteries abound in readings, conversation, and music. To be held at Salmagundi, a private arts club housed in a historic brownstone mansion in Greenwich Village. All in celebration of the paperback release of Joanna Margaret‘s […]
VOICE: A Lens to Black Experiences (Virtual)
Diversity is a call to arms, challenging society to be inclusive. The Black community is richly diverse, comprising many villages. We compare the teachings of forefathers from other places and grandmothers who’d migrated north or across oceans by choice. We are the ancestors in our lineage. We perceive the world differently and filter those experiences […]
Yearnings of a Chat Bot: Are Poets the Original Chat Bots? (In Person)
The romantic ideation of the half human/half robot is one that we have been musing since computerized sentience in woman/man/creature form has graced our movies and tv shows: Terminator, Blade Runner, Ex-Machina, Metropolis, etc. This longing to understand the Machine-Man, the Maschinenmensch, comes from the fact that we have always had relationships with machines, from […]
Zine-making for Personal & Community Storytelling (In Person)
Zines are handmade books, typically created by hand with basic materials–paper, scissors, pens, and ideas. Zine-making can facilitate the development of personal and community-based storytelling. Join the Brooklyn Community Pride Center’s Zine-Making Workshop in partnership with Booklyn, Inc. Brooklyn Community Pride Center; 1360 Fulton Street, Ground Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11216 – wheelchair accessible https://www.lgbtbrooklyn.org/
We Speak Our Names: Lived Narratives (Virtual)
Join Poets Network & Exchange and the Bronx Book Fair for an intergenerational collective of powerful voices and performances by poets/spoken word performance artists Edward D. Currelley, Lorraine Currelley, and Caroline Reddy. Please register in advance in the Zoom link provided. https://www.facebook.com/BronxBookFair/