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Appel Salon | Marlon James | April 17, 2018

"Where is the noble suffering that we want from the Caribbean novel? It's the Caribbean people asking that."—Marlon James

Marlon James in conversation with Brendan DeCaries and David Chariandy on April 17, 2018 at the Toronto Reference Library.

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Elif Batuman | False Starts | Granta Magazine
Elif Batuman on The Idiot, the porous boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, and why everyone should approach writing like Snoopy the dog.
Madeleine Albright: "Fascism: A Warning" | Talks at Google
In Fascism: A Warning, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright draws on her experiences as a child in war-torn Europe and her distinguished career as a diplomat to provide a personal and urgent examination of Fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes today’s world. A Fascist, observes Madeleine Albright, “is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.”

Fascism, as she shows, not only endured through the twentieth century but now presents a more virulent threat to peace and justice than at any time since the end of World War II. The momentum toward democracy that swept the world when the Berlin Wall fell has gone into reverse. In many countries, economic, technological, and cultural factors are weakening the political center and empowering the extremes of right and left. Contemporary leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are employing many of the tactics used by Fascists in the 1920s and 30s.

Fascism: A Warning is a book for our times that is relevant to all times. Written by someone who has not only studied history but helped to shape it, this call to arms teaches us the lessons we must understand and the questions we must answer if we are to save ourselves from repeating the tragic errors of the past.
Weike Wang | Chemistry
Author Weike Wang introduces her new novel “Chemistry” in conversation with writer and critic Maris Kreizman.

Facing a demanding academic curriculum, overbearing parental expectations, and a marriage proposal from her devoted partner, the unnamed narrator of “Chemistry” is facing pressure and scrutiny from all sides. But this overwhelming amount of pressure will launch our flawed and insightful chemist heroine into a path of self discovery and realization. Leaving the familiar plan for the future behind, she tries to find the balance of self sacrifice, true desire, and love in a two year journey that is sure to captivate modern readers.

Weike Wang is a graduate of Harvard University, where she earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry and her doctorate in public health. She received her MFA from Boston University. Her fiction has been published in or is forthcoming from Alaska Quarterly Review, Glimmer Train, The Journal, Ploughshares, Redivider, and SmokeLong Quarterly. She is a 2017 “5 Under 35” honoree of the National Book Foundation.

Maris Kreizman is the creator of Slaughterhouse 90210, a blog and book (Flatiron Books, 2015) that celebrates the intersection of literature and pop culture. She's a writer and critic, as well as a former book editor and, most recently, she was the editorial director of Book of the Month.
David Bowie: A Life by Dylan Jones
Dylan Jones's engrossing, magisterial biography of David Bowie is unlike any Bowie story ever written. Drawn from over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers, and collaborators, some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie, this oral history weaves a hypnotic spell as it unfolds the story of a remarkable rise to stardom and an unparalleled artistic path.

Tracing Bowie's life from the English suburbs to London to New York to Los Angeles, Berlin, and beyond, its collective voices describe a man profoundly shaped by his relationship with his schizophrenic half-brother Terry; an intuitive artist who could absorb influences through intense relationships and yet drop people cold when they were no longer of use; and a social creature equally comfortable partying with John Lennon and dining with Frank Sinatra.

By turns insightful and deliciously gossipy, David Bowie is as intimate a portrait as may ever be drawn. It sparks with admiration and grievances, lust and envy, as the speakers bring you into studios and bedrooms they shared with Bowie, and onto stages and film sets, opening corners of his mind and experience that transform our understanding of both artist and art. Including illuminating, never-before-seen material from Bowie himself, drawn from a series of Jones's interviews with him across two decades, David Bowie is an epic, unforgettable cocktail-party conversation about a man whose enigmatic shapeshifting and irrepressible creativity produced one of the most sprawling, fascinating lives of our time.
PEN Out Loud: 2018 PEN Literary Awards Salon
With Nadxieli Nieto, Hannah Lillith Assadi, Victor LaValle, Nicole Sealey, & Hari Kunzru

As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie so eloquently puts it, “when we realize there is never a single story about a place, we regain a kind of paradise." PEN Literary Awards finalists Hari Kunzru, Victor LaValle, Nicole Sealey, and Hannah Lillith Assadi read from their work, and bring a glimpse of paradise to the Strand Book Store. Through a wide range of genres and themes, we celebrate the multiplicity of American stories which define the American literary canon as we know it, showcasing the masterful breadth of work being published and celebrated today.

Hannah Lillith Assadi holds an MFA in fiction from the Columbia University School of the Arts. She was raised in Arizona and lives in Brooklyn. Her novel Sonora (Soho 2017) received the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction.

Hari Kunzuru is the author of five novels, most recently White Tears. His work has been translated into twenty-one languages, and his short stories and journalism have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and The New Yorker. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The New York Public Library, and the American Academy in Berlin. He lives in Brooklyn.

Born in St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. and raised in Apopka, Florida, Nicole Sealey is the author of Ordinary Beast, finalist for the 2018 PEN Open Book Award, and The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named, winner of the 2015 Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming to Best American Poetry 2018,The New Yorker,The New York Times and elsewhere. Nicole holds an MLA in Africana studies from the University of South Florida and an MFA in creative writing from New York University. She is the executive director at Cave Canem Foundation and the 2018-2019 Doris Lippman Visiting Poet at The City College of New York.

Victor LaValle is the author of seven works of fiction and one comic book. His most recent novel, The Changeling, was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2017 by Time Magazine, USA Today, and the New York Public Library. His comic book, Victor LaValle's Destroyer, is a continuation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein taking place in the modern day and tackling contemporary political issues. He teaches writing at Columbia University.
Amber Tamblyn's "Any Man" Book Release and Conversation with Jodi Kantor
An empowering and inspiring conversation with two trailblazing voices of the #MeToo movement.

Amber Tamblyn, the Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actor, director and founding member of Time’s Up, joins us for the launch of her debut novel, Any Man. Her book sheds crucial light on rape culture, the experience of trauma and the uplifting of victims and their stories. She talks with New York Times investigative reporter Jodi Kantor, who, with Megan Twohey, broke the Harvey Weinstein story. The event includes a galvanizing reading from Tamblyn’s novel and dialogue on this watershed moment of reckoning in our society and around the world.
Omar El Akkad (author of American War) at the FYE® Conference 2018
Omar El Akkad, author of AMERICAN WAR: A NOVEL (Vintage), speaks about his book at the First-Year Experience® (FYE) Conference in San Antonio, TX.
Paul Auster | False Starts | Granta Magazine
‘I think of art, and the making of art, as an illness, really.’ Paul Auster on giving up on fiction at twenty-three and returning to it in his thirties.
Peter Carey | Appel Salon | March 5, 2018
"The book really began when I thought about the redex trial and I looked at the old newsreel footage and it's extraordinary. The whole country is mad about a car race."—Peter Carey

Winner of the Booker Prize and Commonwealth Writers' Prize among others, Peter Care discusses his novel, A Long Way From Home.
Terrance Hayes + Mary Karr | American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
Poets Terrance Hayes and Mary Karr celebrate the launch of Terrance Hayes' newest collection, “American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin.”

Terrance Hayes is the author of Lighthead, winner of the 2010 National Book Award and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His other books are “Wind In a Box,” “Hip Logic,” and “Muscular Music.” His honors include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship. “How To Be Drawn,” his most recent collection of poems, was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award and received the 2016 NAACP Image Award for Poetry.

Mary Karr is a poet, essayist and memoirist. She rose to fame with the publication of her bestselling memoir "The Liars' Club." She is the Jesse Truesdell Peck Professor of English Literature at Syracuse University. Her latest book is "Tropic of Squalor: Poems," out in May from Harper.
Simon Doonan | Soccer Style
Just in time for the World Cup, style guru and soccer fan Simon Doonan introduces his new book “Soccer Style: The Magic and Madness.”

Simon Doonan has two passions in life: Fashion and Football. At one time these two obsessions would have made very strange bedfellows. But times have changed: football and fashion have fallen in love. The unapologetic and unbridled style choices of today's soccer stars offer a fascinating window into the heart of the game.

Looking at the beautiful game through the lens of style, Doonan entertainingly explores the magic and madness of this unique culture. Charting football style from its very beginnings, he pays homage to the great style icons of the game, from George Best to Lionel Messi, before turning his gaze to the hair, the tattoos and the cars, not to mention those other style icons of the game: the fans, the managers and, of course, the WAGs.

Doonan's laser wit and hilarious observations are complemented by more than 230 photographs, making this a laugh-out-loud read for even the most fickle football fan or fashionista.

Writer, columnist and football obsessive Simon Doonan is the Creative Ambassador for Barneys New York. He has worked in fashion for over 35 years, and is the author of six books, including the tongue-in-cheek style guides Eccentric Glamour and Gay Men Don't Get Fat. Simon will be appearing as a judge on upcoming NBC television show, Making It, co-hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman.
Sick: Porochista Khakpour with Eileen Myles | NYPL Author Talks
Porochista Khakpour recounts a lifetime of misdiagnoses and an arduous quest for a cure, all the while meditating on the physical and psychological impacts of uncertainty, and the eventual challenge of accepting the diagnosis she had searched for over the course of her adult life. Poet and novelist Eileen Myles joins to discuss what it takes to write one’s way through illness.
Sebastian Abbot: The Away Game: The Epic Search for Soccer's Next Superstars
Sebastian Abbot discusses his new book, The Away Game. The Away Game tells the gripping story of a group of boys discovered in what may be the largest talent search in sports history. Over the past decade, an audacious program called Football Dreams has held tryouts for millions of 13-year-old boys across Africa looking for soccer’s next superstars. Led by the Spanish scout who helped launch Lionel Messi’s career at Barcelona and funded by the desert kingdom of Qatar, the program has chosen a handful of boys each year to train to become professionals — a process over a thousand times more selective than getting into Harvard. In The Away Game, reporter Sebastian Abbot follows a small group of the boys as they are discovered on dirt fields across Africa, join the glittering academy in Doha where they train, and compete for the chance to gain fame and fortune at Europe’s top clubs.
Meet the Author: Yaa Gyasi (HOMEGOING)
Author Yaa Gyasi discusses her influences, her favorite thing about writing, and her biggest fear as an author.

About HOMEGOING

Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery.

Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Yaa Gyasi’s extraordinary novel illuminates slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed—and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.
Edwidge Danticat with Paul Holdengräber: The Art of Immigration
Edwidge Danticat discusses the manners in which she has wielded her art to raise up immigrant voices and how the turmoil of today is changing her approach to it for the future.

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