New York
Monday, April 17
7:00pm
Jacques Rancière & Kristin Ross in Conversation
upcoming events
What's Never Said
by Susan Shapiro
Heliotrope Books LLC
$16.00 List Price
For more info visit:
Amazon • IndieBound • Barnes & Noble
Tuesday, February 19
7:00pm
Launching Lizzy Mason's The Art of Losing (PRINCE ST)
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Tuesday, February 19
7:30pm
Esmé Weijun Wang: The Collected Schizophrenias w/ Alice Sola Kim
Tuesday February 19 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM In The Collected Schizophrenias, Esmé Weijun Wang details her journey toward her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder and provides insight into a condition long misunderstood. Written with a sharp analytic eye, which she honed as a former lab researcher at …
Tuesday February 19 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
In The Collected Schizophrenias, Esmé Weijun Wang details her journey toward her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder and provides insight into a condition long misunderstood. Written with a sharp analytic eye, which she honed as a former lab researcher at Stanford, these essays range from exploring the depths of a rare form of psychosis to how she uses fashion to present as high-functioning; from the failures of the higher education system to the complexity of compounding factors such as PTSD and Lyme disease.
Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Wang discusses also the medical community’s own disagreement about labels and procedures for diagnosing those with mental illness and examines the ways in which schizophrenia manifests in her own life. Exhaustively researched and deeply moving, The Collected Schizophrenias is an essay collection of undeniable power.
Esmé Weijun Wang is the author of The Border of Paradise. She received the Whiting Award in 2018 and was named one of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists of 2017. She holds an MFA from the University of Michigan and lives in San Francisco.
Alice Sola Kim, a left-handed anchor baby currently residing in New York, is a winner of the 2016 Whiting Award. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in places such as Tin House, The Village Voice, McSweeney's, Lenny, BuzzFeed Books, and The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy. She has received grants and scholarships from the MacDowell Colony, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Elizabeth George Foundation.MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT
Wednesday, February 20
6:30pm
A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women: With Siri Hustvedt and Clémence Boulouque
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Wednesday, February 20
7:00pm
Only As The Day is Long: Dorianne Laux (WILLIAMSBURG)
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Wednesday, February 20
7:00pm
The Atlas of Reds and Blues: Devi S. Laskar (PRINCE STREET)
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Wednesday, February 20
7:00pm
Time Flows Like A River: Amit Chaudhuri and James Wood
What does it mean to exist in both the past and the present? Is it true that "time flows like a river"? We forget the rituals by which the house of our life was erected and the stories a house can contain.
Amit Chaudhuri takes up the question of the divide between fiction and non-fiction, novel and memoir in Friend of My Youth (NYRB), the story of a house and a city told through geography, history, politics, and fable. New Yorker critic, essayist and novelist, James Wood (Upstate, 2018) has written extensively about Amit Chaudhuri's work and this will be their first public conversation.
Chaudhuri is also a critically acclaimed singer in the North Indian classical tradition. He will perform two of his own compositions, accompanied by guitarist Phil Robson, prefacing the music with remarks that connect his music to his writing and life.
This event is free to attend with no reservation required. Seating is available on a first come, first served basis. For more information, see: http://www.centerforfiction.org/calendar/time-flows-like-a-river-amit-chaudhuri-and-james-wood/MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT
Wednesday, February 20
7:30pm
ROSELEE GOLDBERG: PERFORMANCE NOW ON THE 2ND FLOOR
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Wednesday, February 20
7:30pm
Christopher Castellani: Leading Men w/ Emma Straub
Wednesday February 20 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM In July of 1953, at a glittering party thrown by Truman Capote in Portofino, Italy, Tennessee Williams and his longtime lover Frank Merlo meet Anja Blomgren, a mysteriously taciturn young Swedish beauty and aspiring actress. Their encounter will go on to alter…
Wednesday February 20 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
In July of 1953, at a glittering party thrown by Truman Capote in Portofino, Italy, Tennessee Williams and his longtime lover Frank Merlo meet Anja Blomgren, a mysteriously taciturn young Swedish beauty and aspiring actress. Their encounter will go on to alter all of their lives.
Ten years later, Frank revisits the tempestuous events of that fateful summer from his deathbed in Manhattan, where he waits anxiously for Tennessee to visit him one final time. Anja, now legendary film icon Anja Bloom, lives as a recluse in the present-day U.S., until a young man connected to the events of 1953 lures her reluctantly back into the spotlight after he discovers she possesses the only surviving copy of Williams’s final play.
What keeps two people together and what breaks them apart? Can we save someone else if we can’t save ourselves? Like The Master and The Hours, Leading Men seamlessly weaves fact and fiction to navigate the tensions between public figures and their private lives. In an ultimately heartbreaking story about the burdens of fame and the complex negotiations of life in the shadows of greatness, Castellani creates an unforgettable leading lady in Anja Bloom and reveals the hidden machinery of one of the great literary love stories of the twentieth-century.
Christopher Castellani is the author of three previous novels (A Kiss from Maddalena, The Saint of Lost Things, and All This Talk of Love) and The Art of Perspective, a book of essays on the craft of fiction. He is the son of Italian immigrants, a Guggenheim fellow, and the artistic director of GrubStreet, one of the country's leading creative writing centers. He lives in Boston.
Emma Straub is from New York City. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Modern Lovers and The Vacationers. Her fiction and nonfiction have been published by Tin House, The Paris Review Daily, Time, Slate, the New York Times, and Rookie. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn, where she co-owns Books Are Magic.MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT
Thursday, February 21
7:00pm
112: Saidiya Hartman on Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments
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Thursday, February 21
7:00pm
112: Saidiya Hartman on Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments
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Thursday, February 21
7:00pm
TOSH: Tosh Berman with Gillian McCain (WILLIAMSBURG)
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Thursday, February 21
7:00pm
The Songs of David Bowie: Chris O'Leary with Billy Hough (PRINCE STREET)
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Thursday, February 21
7:00pm
Epic Voices: The Controlling Image: Digges & Levis with Dorianne Laux
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Thursday, February 21
7:00pm
PEN OUT LOUD: NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH AND ISAAC FITZGERALD
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Thursday, February 21
7:30pm
Erin Hosier: Don't Let Me Down
A fierce, vivid memoir about a father-daughter relationship steeped in God, rebellion, and the Beatles. Erin Hosier’s coming-of-age was full of contradiction. Born into the turbulent 1970s, she was raised in rural Ohio by lapsed hippies who traded 1960s rock ‘n’ roll for 1950s-era Christian hymns.…
A fierce, vivid memoir about a father-daughter relationship steeped in God, rebellion, and the Beatles.
Erin Hosier’s coming-of-age was full of contradiction. Born into the turbulent 1970s, she was raised in rural Ohio by lapsed hippies who traded 1960s rock ‘n’ roll for 1950s-era Christian hymns. Her mother’s newfound faith was rooted in a desire to manage her husband’s mood swings, which could alternately fill the house with music or with violence.
All the while, Jack was larger than life to his adoring daughter. Full of conflict, their complex relationship set the tone for three decades of Erin’s relationships with men; the Beatles provided the soundtrack. Jack bonded with Erin over their iconic songs, even as they inspired her to question authority—both his and others’.
Don’t Let Me Down is about a brave girl trying to navigate family secrets and tragedies and escape from small-town small-mindedness. It is a searing and often funny exploration of how women first see themselves through the lens of a parent’s love, and of the ties that bind us to our childhood heroes, who ultimately lead us to ask that most profound of questions: Is love really all you need?
Erin Hosier is the coauthor of Patty Schemel's Hit So Hard and is a literary agent with Dunow, Carlson, & Lerner. She lives in Brooklyn.
This event is free!MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT
Friday, February 22
7:00pm
112th: Diana Senechal presents Mind Over Memes
Join us on Friday, February 22nd at 7pm for a reading and discussion of Mind Over Memes: Passive Listening, Toxic Talk, and Other Modern Language Follies with the author, Diana Senechal.
Too often our use of language has become lazy, frivolous, and even counterproductive. We rely on clich's and bromides to communicate in such a way that our intentions are lost or misinterpreted. In a culture of "takeaways" and buzzwords, it requires study and cunning to keep language alive. In Mind over Memes: Passive Listening, Toxic Talk, and Other Modern Language Follies, Diana Senechal examines words, concepts, and phrases that demand reappraisal. Targeting a variety of terms, the author contends that a "good fit" may not always be desirable; delivers a takedown of the adjective "toxic"; and argues that "social justice" must take its place among other justices. This book also includes a critique of our modern emphasis on quick answers and immediate utility. By scrutinizing words and phrases that serve contemporary fads and follies, this book stands up against the excesses of language and offers engaging alternatives. Drawing on literature, philosophy, social sciences, music, and technology, Senechal offers a rich framework to make fresh connections between topics. Combining sharp criticism, lyricism, and wit, Mind over Memes argues for judicious and imaginative speech.
Read our Q&A with the author here: https://www.bookculture.com/blog/2018/10/29/qa-author-diana-senechal
Diana Senechal is an educator and author whose writing has appeared in The New Republic, Education Week, American Educator, and The New York Times. Senechal is the 2011 winner of the Hiett Prize and the author of Republic of Noise: The Loss of Solitude in Schools and Culture (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2012), which was a Choice Outstanding Academic title. She now teaches at the Varga Katalin Gimnázium in Szolnok, Hungary.. For more about her work, please visit her website.MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT
Friday, February 22
7:00pm
112th: Diana Senechal presents Mind Over Memes
Join us on Friday, February 22nd at 7pm for a reading and discussion of Mind Over Memes: Passive Listening, Toxic Talk, and Other Modern Language Follies with the author, Diana Senechal.
Too often our use of language has become lazy, frivolous, and even counterproductive. We rely on clich's and bromides to communicate in such a way that our intentions are lost or misinterpreted. In a culture of "takeaways" and buzzwords, it requires study and cunning to keep language alive. In Mind over Memes: Passive Listening, Toxic Talk, and Other Modern Language Follies, Diana Senechal examines words, concepts, and phrases that demand reappraisal. Targeting a variety of terms, the author contends that a "good fit" may not always be desirable; delivers a takedown of the adjective "toxic"; and argues that "social justice" must take its place among other justices. This book also includes a critique of our modern emphasis on quick answers and immediate utility. By scrutinizing words and phrases that serve contemporary fads and follies, this book stands up against the excesses of language and offers engaging alternatives. Drawing on literature, philosophy, social sciences, music, and technology, Senechal offers a rich framework to make fresh connections between topics. Combining sharp criticism, lyricism, and wit, Mind over Memes argues for judicious and imaginative speech.
Read our Q&A with the author here: https://www.bookculture.com/blog/2018/10/29/qa-author-diana-senechal
Diana Senechal is an educator and author whose writing has appeared in The New Republic, Education Week, American Educator, and The New York Times. Senechal is the 2011 winner of the Hiett Prize and the author of Republic of Noise: The Loss of Solitude in Schools and Culture (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2012), which was a Choice Outstanding Academic title. She now teaches at the Varga Katalin Gimnázium in Szolnok, Hungary.. For more about her work, please visit her website.MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT
Monday, February 25
6:30pm
Albertine Book Club on The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust
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You Know You Want This:
"Cat Person" and Other Stories
by Kristen Roupenian
Gallery/Scout Press
$24.99 List Price
For more info visit:
Amazon • IndieBound • Barnes & NobleMonday, February 25
7:00pm
Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women: Silvia Federici (PRINCE STREET)
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Monday, February 25
7:30pm
Sophia Shalmiyev: Mother Winter w/ Melissa Febos
Monday February 25 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM Mother Winter is the story of Sophia’s emotional journeys as an immigrant, an artist, and a woman raised without her mother. Born to a Russian mother and an Azerbaijani father, Shalmiyev grew up under the stark oppressiveness of 1980s Leningrad. An imbalance of …
Monday February 25 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Mother Winter is the story of Sophia’s emotional journeys as an immigrant, an artist, and a woman raised without her mother. Born to a Russian mother and an Azerbaijani father, Shalmiyev grew up under the stark oppressiveness of 1980s Leningrad. An imbalance of power and widespread anti-Semitism in her homeland led her father to steal Shalmiyev away, emigrating to America and abandoning her estranged and alcoholic mother, Elena. At age eleven, Shalmiyev found herself on a plane headed west, motherless and terrified of the new world unfolding before her.
Mother Winter depicts in urgent vignettes Sophia’s years of travel, searching, and forging meaningful connection with the worlds she occupies. The result is a searing meditation on motherhood, displacement, gender politics, and the pursuit of wholeness after shattering loss. And ultimately, it is an aching observation of the human heart across time and culture.
Sophia Shalmiyev emigrated from Leningrad to NYC in 1990. An MFA graduate of Portland State University, she was the nonfiction editor for The Portland Review and is a recipient of the Laurels scholarship and numerous Kellogg’s fellowship awards. She has a second master’s degree in creative arts therapy from The School of Visual Arts, where she worked with survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. Her work has appeared in Vela Magazine, Bellows American Review, Electric Lit, The Seattle Review of Books, Ravishly and The Literary Review, among others; all with a feminist lens. She lives in Portland.
Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir, Whip Smart, and the essay collection, Abandon Me. She is a three-time MacDowell Colony fellow, and has also received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, The Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Ragdale, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. The recipient of an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, she is currently Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Monmouth University, MFA faculty at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), and serves on the Board of Directors for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. She grew up on Cape Cod and lives in Brooklyn.MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT
The Tell:
A Memoir
by Linda I. Meyers
She Writes Press
$16.95 List Price
For more info visit:
Amazon • IndieBound • Barnes & Noble
Tuesday, February 26
7:00pm
112th: Elizabeth Emens on Life Admin
Join us at Book Culture on 112th Street on Tuesday, February 26th at 7pm as we welcome Elizabeth Emens to discuss her new book, Life Admin: How I Learned to Do Less, Do Better, and Life More. Reading this book should be at the top of your To Do list. Life Admin will give you many hours of your life…
Join us at Book Culture on 112th Street on Tuesday, February 26th at 7pm as we welcome Elizabeth Emens to discuss her new book, Life Admin: How I Learned to Do Less, Do Better, and Life More.
Reading this book should be at the top of your To Do list. Life Admin will give you many hours of your life back.
Every day an unseen form of labor creeps into our lives—stealing precious moments of free time, placing a strain on our schedules and our relationships, and earning neither appreciation nor compensation in return. This labor is life admin: the kind of secretarial and managerial work necessary to run a life and a household.
Elizabeth Emens was a working mother with two young children, swamped like so many of us, when she realized that this invisible labor was consuming her. Desperate to survive and to help others along the way, she conducted interviews and focus groups to gather favorite tips and tricks, admin confessions, and the secrets of admin-happy households.
Life Admin tackles the problem of admin in all its forms, from everyday tasks like scheduling doctors appointments and paying bills, to life-cycle events like planning a wedding, a birth, a funeral. Emens explores how this labor is created, how it affects our lives, and how we might avoid, reduce, and redistribute admin whenever possible—as individuals and as a society.
Life Admin is the book that will teach us all how to do less of it, and to do it better.MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT