Bookend Events

Three debut novelists read and discuss craft, process, shared themes and inspiration. Cleyvis Natera’s Neruda On the Park follows a Dominican family in NYC as they face gentrification. Rebekah Anderson’s The Grand Promise depicts the impacts to homesteader and indigenous communities near a public works project during the Great Depression. Mary McMyne’s The Book of Gothel follows a medieval peasant woman who becomes known as a witch, after she leaves her village to live in a tower in the woods without men.

https://rebekahlanderson.wordpress.com/ | https://fb.me/e/2O5q4CNou

Mark de Silva discusses his new novel, The Logos, on publication day with Benjamin Hale (The Fat Artist and Other Stories) at Unnameable Books. Jaded and adrift, a young painter in New York joins his fate to a mercurial titan of industry in the hopes of finding a new form—and quite possibly a new life. “Hefty insight on the limits of human perception and the limitlessness of human vanity the likes of which we haven’t enjoyed since William Gaddis was around to make us think.” – The Millions’ Most Anticipated List.

Location: Unnameable Books, 615 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238

https://www.clashbooks.com/

Hosted by the Dominican Writers Association and Soho Press, Sofia Quintero (Show and Prove), Francesca Padilla (What’s Coming to Me), and Christine Kandic Torres (The Girls in Queens) discuss the continued need for authentic Latinx fiction that holds up mirrors to real life inequities. While Latinx readers deserve escapist stories and representation in all genres, novels that honestly depict the painful imprints of race and class in the real world remain important as ever to represent the true lived experiences, both positive and painful, of today’s Latinx youth.

https://www.dominicanwriters.com/

POWERHOUSE Arena is proud to welcome back Lucy Ives for the launch of her Graywolf Press debut, Life Is Everywhere. The story of one night in the life of grad student Erin Adamo, locked out of her apartment and taking refuge in her university library with a few manuscripts that just might hold the answer, this novel is Ives’s latest masterpiece and more evidence that she is one of the most innovative and ambitious writers working today.

Location: POWERHOUSE Arena, 28 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY 11207

Join Melville House’s 20th anniversary panel, featuring co-founders Valerie Merians and Dennis Johnson in conversation with authors Steve Stern (The Village Idiot), Rita Zoey Chin (The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern), and Jinwoo Chong (Flux). Register in the link below.

Location: Greenlight Bookstore, 686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217

The Center for Black Literature will present “Places of the Heart,” a literary salon spotlighting authors who will discuss the intricacies of Black love and how Black authors incorporate and depict those feelings and emotions through their characters in an authentic way in their writing, and how it evolves in their stories. Invited writers are Tiphanie Yanique (Monster in the Middle), Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Take My Hand), and Maurice Carlos Ruffin (The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You).

https://centerforblackliterature.org/

Join Kew & Willow Books to celebrate debut Latinx authors Christine Kandic Torres (The Girls in Queens) and Alejandro Varela (The Town of Babylon), as they discuss their writing journey and the importance of representing Queens in their books. This conversation will be moderated by Lupita Aquino (better known as Lupita Reads). Register in the link below.

Location: Kew & Willow Books, 81-63 Lefferts Boulevard, Kew Gardens, NY 11415

John Leonard Prize for best first book nominees Torrey Peters, Larissa Pham, and Megha Majumdar join the National Book Critics Circle to talk about what happens after the debut. How have their careers changed? What are they working on now? What are some problems they’ve encountered as they’ve begun to contemplate what’s next?

https://www.bookcritics.org/

Join Revolution Books for an evening of author readings and conversation. In Brother Alive, Zain Khalid tells of three immigrant boys, their adoptive Imam father in Staten Island, and a hallucinatory double. In All This Could Be Different, Sarah Thankam Mathews tells of a 22-year-old Indian immigrant in the U.S. navigating queer romance and her first job in a monstrous economy. Two poignant novels with characters facing crushing forces of capitalism and tradition, and wrestling with issues of love. 

Zain Khalid has published in The New Yorker. Sarah Thankam Mathews was featured in Best American Short Stories 2020.

Location: Revolution Books, 437 Malcolm X Boulevard/Lenox Ave, New York, NY 10037 @132nd St, Harlem

https://www.revolutionbooksnyc.org/

Calling all lovers of indie bookshops for WORD’s two-part event: a screening of a new literary documentary and a panel of Brooklyn’s foremost booksellers. When an author road-trips to bookstores around the country to promote his online-only novel, he discovers a community of readers who buy their books locally. These readers make a case for local bookshops in the short documentary film: “The Bookstour.” The screening will be followed by a conversation among booksellers, moderated by Director Mason Engel.

Location: WORD Bookstore, Greenpoint location, 126 Franklin Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222

https://www.thebookstourfilm.com/

Join a book launch party for Jewish Noir II: Tales of Crime and Other Dark Deeds with co-editor Kenneth Wishnia and contributors Jill D. Block, Jen Conley, Robin Hemley, Steven Wishnia, and Joy Mahabir. Panelists will discuss the light and dark sides of religion and culture, the legacy of negative stereotypes amid rising anti-Semitism, the history of prejudice, assimilation, and questions of ethnic identity and political corruption that feed into an exploitative system. This informal gathering will include light refreshments.

Location: Quimby’s Bookstore NYC, 536 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211

https://www.pmpress.org/

On Friday night, Greenlight Bookstore is delighted to once again partner with CLMP (Community of Literary Magazines and Presses), as well as some of Brooklyn’s best independent book and magazine publishers, to throw a Brooklyn-sized party celebrating the spirit of literary independence in our borough. Partygoers are invited to mingle with Brooklyn authors and publishers, discover new works, enjoy some excellently-curated music, enter for a chance to win a gift bag of featured books and magazines, and kick off the Brooklyn Book Festival weekend!  

Location: Greenlight Bookstore, 686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217

www.greenlightbookstore.com | www.clmp.org

Join Estelle-Sarah Bulle, French novelist, and Naomi Jackson, author of the widely acclaimed novel The Star Side of Bird Hill, for a discussion on Bulle’s bestselling debut novel, Where Dogs Bark with Their Tails. Where Dogs Bark with Their Tails examines the legacies of capitalism and colonialism, the experience of being caught between worlds, the grief of losing our most beloved, and the stories that might help us reconcile the past, present, and future. In English. Free with RSVP.

Location: Albertine, 972 5th Ave, New York, NY 10075 (cross street, 79th Street)