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The Poetry Society of New York Micro-Residencies
Saturday June 15 @ 12:00PM - Sunday June 30 @ 04:00PM
Books Are Magic is thrilled to partner with the Poetry Society of New York this June to host two poets on-site to celebrate #PRIDE.
The mission of The Micro-Residency program is to carve out that small window of time for working poets in stimulating environments & to demystify poetry by exposing the public to contemporary poets at work. This month we welcome: Emma Sheinbaum June 15 & 16 12:00pm - 4:00pm Emma Sheinbaum writes essays, poetry, and hybrid/image-text pieces. Her work has been published in Juked, TriQuarterly, and Glass Mountain, among others. This spring she was selected as a semifinalist for the The Center for Women Writers’ International Literary Awards: The Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award, judged by Melissa Febos. She is also the Co-Founder & Editor of a genreless literary journal called A VELVET GIANT. Emma works in Manhattan and waters her plants at home in Brooklyn. C.J. Strauss June 29 & 30 12:00pm-4:00pm C.J. Strauss is a queer artist and writer currently pursuing a B.A. in English at Barnard College. Their art and writing has been published both internationally and domestically by Lunch Ticket Magazine, Utterance Journal, the Rise Up Review, Vade Mecum Magazine, The Free Library of the Internet Void, The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, RATROCK Magazine, the Claremont Review, South Broadway Ghost Society, Echoes Literary Magazine, and the Barnard Bulletin. They post mostly pictures of their dogs on Instagram @cjsxyz. 
Linda Holmes: Evvie Drake Starts Over w/ Maris Kreizman
Tuesday June 25 | 7:00PM - 9:00PM
Join Books Are Magic and Linda Holmes for a celebration of her new novel, Evvie Drake Starts Over, at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church (157 Montague Street) with Maris Kreizman!
In a small town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth “Evvie” Drake rarely leaves her house. Everyone in town, including her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and she doesn’t correct them. In New York, Dean Tenney, former major-league pitcher and Andy’s childhood friend, is struggling with a case of the “yips”: he can’t throw straight anymore, and he can’t figure out why. An invitation from Andy to stay in Maine for a few months seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button. When Dean moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie’s house, the two make a deal: Dean won’t ask about Evvie’s late husband, and Evvie won’t ask about Dean’s baseball career. Rules, though, have a funny way of being broken—and what starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more. But before they can find out what might lie ahead, they’ll have to wrestle a few demons: the bonds they’ve broken, the plans they’ve changed, and the secrets they’ve kept. They’ll need a lot of help, but in life, as in baseball, there’s always a chance—right up until the last out. Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for National Public Radio and the host of the podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which has also held sold-out live shows in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, and elsewhere. She appears regularly on NPR’s radio shows including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. Before NPR, she wrote for New York magazine online and for TV Guide, as well as for the influential website Television Without Pity. In her free time, she watches far too many romantic comedies, bakes bread, watches her nephews get taller, and recently knitted her first hat. Maris Kreizman is the host of The Maris Review, a literary podcast from LitHub. She's an essayist and critic whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the LA Times, Vanity Fair, BuzzFeed, Publishers Weekly, The Ringer, The Cut, Vulture, and The Atlantic. 
Lauren Mechling: How Could She w/ Naomi Fry
Tuesday June 25 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
After a devastating break-up with her fiancé, Geraldine is struggling to get her life back on track in Toronto. Her two old friends, Sunny and Rachel, left ages ago for New York, where they’ve landed good jobs, handsome husbands, and unfairly glamorous lives (or at least so it appears to Geraldine). Sick of watching from the sidelines, Geraldine decides to force the universe to give her the big break she knows she deserves, and moves to New York City. After she arrives, though, and zigzags her way through the downtown art scene and rooftop party circuit, she discovers how hard it is to find her footing in a world of influencers and media darlings. Plus, the magazine where Sunny and Rachel work is on the brink of folding. Rachel is struggling to juggle her life as a writer, wife, and new mother—how is it that she was more confident and successful at twenty-five than in her mid-thirties? And Sunny’s life as a popular West Village tastemaker is not nearly as charmed as it seemed to Geraldine from Toronto. Perhaps worst of all, why are Sunny and Rachel—who’ve always been suspicious of each other—suddenly hanging out without Geraldine?
Lauren Mechling has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, The New Yorker online, and Vogue, where she writes a regular book column. She’s worked as a crime reporter and metro columnist for The New York Sun, a young adult novelist, and a features editor at The Wall Street Journal. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children. Naomi Fry is a staff writer at The New Yorker. She lives in Brooklyn. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Rebecca Godfrey + Darcey Steinke: Under the Bridge + Flash Count Diary w/ Jen George
Wednesday June 26 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Recounted in the riveting style of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Under the Bridge is the true crime story of a group of middle-class teenagers-mostly girls-who in 1997 savagely beat a fourteen-year-old classmate to death and then tried to cover up the crime. In this anxious day and age, where schools no longer feel like safe places, Under the Bridge stands out as a compelling and thought-provoking true crime account that illuminates a major contemporary topic.
Flash Count Diary is a brave, brilliant, and unprecedented examination of menopause. Menopause hit Darcey Steinke hard. First came hot flashes. Then insomnia. Then depression. As she struggled to understand what was happening to her, she slammed up against a culture of silence and sexism. She felt lost until she encountered a scientific fact that had escaped her through the early stages of dealing with this life change: the only two creatures on earth that go through menopause, she discovered, are human women and female killer whales. Her fascination with this fact became the starting point for Flash Count Diary, a powerful exploration into aspects of menopause that have rarely been written about, including the changing gender landscape that reduced levels of hormones brings, the actualities of transforming desires, and the realities of prejudice against older women. Flash Count Diary is a deeply feminist book, honest about the intimations of mortality that menopause signals but also an argument for the ascendency, beauty, and power of the post-reproductive years in women’s lives. Rebecca Godfrey’s first novel, The Torn Skirt, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Under The Bridge received one of Canada’s largest literary awards, the British Columbia Award for Canadian Nonfiction, as well as the Arthur Ellis Award for Excellence in Crime Writing. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and has received fellowships from Yaddo and The MacDowell Colony. In 2016, she edited and curated the multimedia exhibition, Girls In Trees. She teaches writing at Columbia University, and lives with her family in upstate New York. Darcey Steinke is the author of the New York Times Notable memoir Easter Everywhere, as well as five novels. In 2017 Maggie Nelson wrote a foreword for a new edition of Suicide Blonde. With Rick Moody, she edited Joyful Noise: The New Testament Revisited (Little, Brown 1997). Her books have been translated into ten languages, and her nonfiction has appeared widely. Her web-story Blindspot was a part of the 2000 Whitney Biennial. She has been both a Henry Hoyns and a Stegner Fellow; Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi; and has taught at the Columbia University School of the Arts, Barnard, The American University of Paris, and Princeton. Flash Count Diary is her most recent book. Jen George was born and raised in Southern California. She is the author of the story collection The Babysitter at Rest, out with Dorothy, a publishing project. Her writing has appeared in BOMB, Harper’s, the Los Angeles Review of Books, n+1 and the Paris Review Daily, among other places. She lives in New York, where she is currently at work on a novel. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Cadwell Turnbull: The Lesson w/ Andrew Liptak
Thursday June 27 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Cadwell Turnbull's debut science fiction novel, THE LESSON, explores the nature of belief, the impact of colonialism, and asks how far are we willing to go for progress? Breaking ground as one of the first science fiction novels set in the Virgin Islands, THE LESSON is not only a thought-provoking literary work, delving deeply into allegorical themes of colonialism, but also vividly draws the community of Charlotte Amalie, the author's hometown.
An alien ship rests over Water Island. For five years the people of the US Virgin Islands have lived with the Ynaa, a race of superadvanced aliens on a research mission they will not fully disclose. They are benevolent in many ways but meet any act of aggression with disproportional wrath. This has led to a strained relationship between the Ynaa and the local Virgin Islanders and a peace that cannot last. A year after the death of a young boy at the hands of an Ynaa, three families find themselves at the center of the inevitable conflict, witnesses and victims to events that will touch everyone and teach a terrible lesson. Cadwell Turnbull is a graduate from the North Carolina State University’s Creative Writing MFA in Fiction and English MA in Linguistics . He was the winner of the 2014 NCSU Prize for Short Fiction and attended Clarion West 2016. His short fiction has appeared in The Verge, Lightspeed, Nightmare, and Asimov’s Science Fiction. His Asimov’s short story “When the Rains Come Back” made Barnes and Noble’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy’s Short Fiction Roundup in April 2018. His Nightmare story “Loneliness is in Your Blood” was selected for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018. His Asimov’s novelette “Other Worlds and This One” was also selected by the anthology as a notable story. The Lesson is his debut novel. Andrew Liptak is a writer and historian from Vermont. He is the Weekend Editor for The Verge, and his work has appeared in Armchair General Magazine, Clarkesworld Magazine, io9, Kirkus Reviews, Lightspeed Magazine, Seven Days, Tor.com, VentureBeat, and other publications. He graduated in 2007 from Norwich University with a bachelor’s degree in History, and in 2009 with a master’s degree in Military History, is a 2014 attendee of the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop, and is an official "Mad Scientist" for the US Army's Training and Doctrine Command. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is represented by Seth Fishman of the Gernert Company. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
FAD mini x Books Are Magic present Storytime w/ Lisa Anchin: The Little Green Girl
Saturday June 29 | 11:00AM - 12:00PM
The Little Green Girl is no ordinary topiary. She dreams of visiting far off places and exploring the world beyond her garden's walls. But for her gardener, Mr. Aster, the prospect of deviating from his daily routine--let alone leaving his beloved home--is unimaginable. Try as she might, the Little Green Girl can't uproot herself and set off on her own. To realize her dream, she'll have to find a way to show Mr. Aster that it's possible to carry a bit of home with you wherever you go. Lushly illustrated and brimming with charm, The Little Green Girl is an ode to broadening your horizons and the unexpected rewards of experiencing the unknown.
Lisa Anchin (www.lisaanchin.com) is a Brooklyn-based illustrator with at least one green thumb. Though she has never encountered anything as magical as the Little Green Girl, her windowsill is brimming with plants, including trees she grew from avocado pits and the seeds of grocery store lemons. Lisa (and her plants) live with her husband, daughter, and two studio cats. The Little Green Girl is her first book. This event is free and in association with FAD Market! It will be held in the garden of the Invisible Dog Arts Center (51 Bergen St). Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
FAD mini x Books Are Magic present Storytime w/ Alyson Curro: Girl Power in Myanmar @Invisible Dog
Sunday June 30 | 11:00AM - 12:00PM
Girl Power in Myanmar is a bilingual children's book that celebrates the lives of 14 women rocking their communities across Myanmar. Some are well known, others’ stories are rarely told. What unites them is that they were not afraid to be bold, and use whatever platform they had to make change. While supporting a local women's organization in Yangon, Myanmar, author Alyson Curro researched, interviewed and worked with five Myanmar female artists and historian Tharaphi Than to illustrate and research the stories. Pyo Let Han, the founder of the first feminist magazine in Myanmar, translated the stories into Myanmar.
Alyson Curro elevates overlooked stories of women and girls, through journalism, policy design, and advocacy. Her work spans Turkey, the United States, and most recently Myanmar. Curro has worked to shed light on and address many manifestations of gender inequity, including gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and the gender wage gap, with The Washington Post, UN Women, and the Offices of Louisiana Senator “JP” Morrell and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). Curro recently returned to New York after spending 18 months in Yangon, Myanmar, where she was supporting a local women's organization. While based in Yangon, Curro authored Girl Power in Myanmar, a newly self-published bilingual children's book about 14 pioneering women throughout Myanmar history. She interviewed nine of the 14 women profiled in the book, and worked with historian Tharaphi Than, author Pyo Let Han, and five artists (Nan Hom Noon, Sandar Khine, Ku Kue, Phyu Mon, and Chuu Wai Nyein) to research, translate, and illustrate the stories. She holds a MPA from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, and a BA in political communication from Louisiana State University. This event is free and in association with FAD Market! It will be held in the garden of the Invisible Dog Arts Center (51 Bergen St). Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Maureen Callahan: American Predator w/ Sarah Weinman
Tuesday July 09 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Ted Bundy. John Wayne Gacy. Jeffrey Dahmer. The names of notorious serial killers are usually well-known; they echo in the news and in public consciousness. But most people have never heard of Israel Keyes, one of the most ambitious and terrifying serial killers in modern history. The FBI considered his behavior unprecedented. Described by a prosecutor as “a force of pure evil,” Keyes was a predator who struck all over the United States. He buried “kill kits”—cash, weapons, and body-disposal tools—in remote locations across the country. Over the course of fourteen years, Keyes would fly to a city, rent a car, and drive thousands of miles in order to use his kits. He would break into a stranger’s house, abduct his victims in broad daylight, and kill and dispose of them in mere hours. And then he would return home to Alaska, resuming life as a quiet, reliable construction worker devoted to his only daughter.
When journalist Maureen Callahan first heard about Israel Keyes in 2012, she was captivated by how a killer of this magnitude could go undetected by law enforcement for over a decade. And so began a project that consumed her for the next several years—uncovering the true story behind how the FBI ultimately caught Israel Keyes, and trying to understand what it means for a killer like Keyes to exist. A killer who left a path of monstrous, randomly committed crimes in his wake—many of which remain unsolved to this day. Maureen Callahan is an award-winning investigative journalist, author, columnist, and commentator. She has covered everything from pop culture to politics. Her writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, New York, Spin, and the New York Post, where she is currently critic-at-large. She lives in New York. Sarah Weinman is the editor of Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s (Library of America) and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives (Penguin). She covers book publishing for Publishers Marketplace, and has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, the Guardian, and Buzzfeed, among other outlets. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Richard Panek: The Trouble with Gravity
Wednesday July 10 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
What is gravity? Nobody knows—and just about nobody knows that nobody knows. How something so pervasive can also be so mysterious, and how that mystery can be so wholly unrecognized outside the field of physics, is one of the greatest conundrums in modern science. But as award-winning author Richard Panek shows in this groundbreaking, mind-bending book, gravity is a cold case that’s beginning to heat up.
In The Trouble with Gravity, Panek invites the reader to experience this ubiquitous yet elusive force in a breathtakingly new way. In the process, he opens up untold vistas onto the universe and humanity’s place in it. Gravity, Panek explains, structures not only our bodies and our physical world, but also our minds and culture. From our very beginnings, humans’ conceptions of gravity have been inextricably bound to our understanding of existence itself. Thus as we get closer and closer to solving the riddle of gravity, it is not only physics that is becoming clearer. We are also getting to know ourselves as never before. A Guggenheim Fellow in science writing, Richard Panek is the author of The 4% Universe, which won the American Institute of Physics communication award. He is also the coauthor, with Temple Grandin, of the New York Times bestseller The Autistic Brain. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Marcy Dermansky: Very Nice w/ Emma Straub
Thursday July 11 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Rachel Klein never meant to kiss her creative writing professor, but with his long eyelashes, his silky hair, and the sad, beautiful life he laid bare on Twitter, she does, and the kiss is very nice. Zahid Azzam never planned to become a houseguest in his student’s sprawling Connecticut home, but with the sparkling swimming pool, the endless supply of Whole Foods strawberries, and Rachel’s beautiful mother, he does, and the home is very nice. Becca Klein never thought she’d have a love affair so soon after her divorce, but when her daughter’s professor walks into her home, bringing with him an apricot standard poodle named Princess, she does, and the affair is…a very bad idea.
Zigzagging between the rarefied circles of Manhattan investment banking, the achingly self-serious MFA programs of the Midwest, and the private bedrooms of Connecticut, Very Nice is an audacious, addictive, and wickedly smart take on the way we live now. Marcy Dermansky is the author of the critically acclaimed novels The Red Car, Bad Marie, and Twins. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Edward F. Albee Foundation. She lives with her daughter in Montclair, New Jersey. 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, and the New York Times, and Rookie. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn, where she co-owns Books Are Magic. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Storytime with Korwin Briggs: The Invention Hunters
Saturday July 13 | 11:00AM - 12:00PM
Join us for storytime with Korwin Briggs, presenting his two new books: The Invention Hunters Discover How Machines Work and The Inventions
Hunters Discover How Electricity Works, two kid-friendly guides to understanding the basics of simple machines and electricity perfect for budding engineers and fans of The Magic School Bus. In both books, The Invention Hunters travel the globe in their flying museum collecting the world’s greatest inventions. In Machines, they land in a construction zone where they think they’ve stumbled on incredible models of everything you’d never find at a building site, from fountains to race cars. But what they really discover—with a kid as their guide—is how simple machines like pulleys, cranks, and levers are used to engineer tools ranging from jackhammers to dump trucks...and even toilets! In Electricity, they touchdown in a kid's backyard, and these silly scientists think they've discovered astonishing specimens, from umbrellas to coins. But what they really learn is how electricity and magnetism powers lamps, batteries, and even toasters! Korwin Briggs is a writer and illustrator who makes books, comics, and infographics about history and science. He's also the author and illustrator of Gods and Heroes: Mythology Around the World and a webcomic, Veritable Hokum. He grew up in eastern Pennsylvania, where his early explorations into how things worked included exhausting grown-ups with constant questions, visiting construction sites, unwinding videotapes, and surviving one shocking encounter with an electrical outlet. He later studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated with a degree in illustration. Now he lives in Queens, New York, with a cleanish desk and an awfully disordered bookshelf. Learn more at www.korwinbriggs.com This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Storytime w/ Jordan Chouteau + Anat Even Or: No More Monsters Under Your Bed!
Sunday July 14 | 11:00AM - 12:00PM
Are your kids too afraid of monsters to fall asleep at night? This whimsical book and its magical no-more-monsters patch could solve ALL of their problems!
This charmingly illustrated picture book will have little ones giggling all the way to bedtime! Kids and adults alike will love the goofy, adorable, not-too-spooky monsters, and the socially positive messages about sharing and conquering your fears--even if you need the help of a little magic to do it! And best of all--every book comes with a FREE interactive no-more-monsters patch that kids can attach to their own pajamas and use to scare off their monsters, too. Jordan Chouteau lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, Tom, their two boys, Brewer and Wylie, and their dog, Bird. She wrote this book so monsters could never rob her kids (or her) of a good night's sleep. This is her first children's book. Anat Even Or is an illustrator, character designer, and calligrapher. She lives in New York City with her husband, Gwilym, daughter, Alwyn, and dog, Nala. This is her first children's book sharing her monsters with the world. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Books Are Magic x Books Beneath the Bridge: Karen Abbott & Susannah Cahalan
Monday July 15 | 7:00PM - 8:00PM
A perfect summer night's story starts with Books Beneath the Bridge. Throughout July and August, join us for book readings by featured authors, representing six of Brooklyn's best independent bookstores. Each evening includes readings, discussion, signings, and more!
Books Are Magic will be partnering with Books Beneath the Bridge for a reading at Pier 1 Granite Prospect at Brooklyn Bridge Park on Monday, July 15th at 7pm. Authors Karen Abbott and Susannah Cahalan will be reading from their forthcoming books, The Ghosts of Eden Park and The Great Pretender, respectively. Karen Abbott is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City, American Rose, and, most recently, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and the Christian Science Monitor. A native of Philadelphia, she now lives in New York City. Susannah Cahalan is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of BRAIN ON FIRE: My Month of Madness, a memoir about her struggle with a rare autoimmune disease of the brain. She writes for the New York Post. Her work has also been featured in the New York Times, Scientific American Magazine, Glamour, Psychology Today, and other publications. She lives in Brooklyn. This event is free and open to the public. 
Glynnis MacNicol: No One Tells You This w/ Dodai Stewart
Tuesday July 16 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
If the story doesn’t end with marriage or a child, what then? This question plagued Glynnis MacNicol on the eve of her fortieth birthday. Despite a successful career as a writer, and an exciting life in New York City, Glynnis was constantly reminded she had neither of the things the world expected of a woman her age: a partner or a baby. She knew she was supposed to feel bad about this. After all, single women and those without children are often seen as objects of pity or indulgent spoiled creatures who think only of themselves. Glynnis refused to be cast into either of those roles, and yet the question remained: What now? There was no good blueprint for how to be a woman alone in the world. It was time to create one.
Over the course of her fortieth year, which this “beguiling” (The Washington Post) memoir chronicles, Glynnis embarks on a revealing journey of self-discovery that continually contradicts everything she’d been led to expect. Through the trials of family illness and turmoil, and the thrills of far-flung travel and adventures with men, young and old (and sometimes wearing cowboy hats), she wrestles with her biggest hopes and fears about love, death, sex, friendship, and loneliness. In doing so, she discovers that holding the power to determine her own fate requires a resilience and courage that no one talks about, and is more rewarding than anyone imagines. Glynnis MacNicol is a writer and co-founder of TheLi.st. Her work has appeared in print and online for publications including ELLE.com, where she was a contributing writer; The New York Times, The Guardian, Forbes, The Cut, New York Daily News, W, Town & Country, The Daily Beast, Shondaland, and Capital New York. She lives in New York City. Dodai Stewart was born in Alabama but raised in New York City. She was a screenwriting major in the Dramatic Writing Department at NYU’s Tisch School Of The Arts, and then abruptly turned to publishing, with stints at Entertainment Weekly, Modern Bride and the splashy tween magazine J-14, all of which prepped her to be the deputy editor (and one of the founding editors) at Jezebel.com. After seven years at Jezebel—where she wrote approximately thirteen thousand posts—she was director of culture coverage at Fusion and editor in chief of Splinter. She's hosted or moderated panels with folks like Roxane Gay, Tina Brown, Rebecca Traister and The Wu-Tang Clan, and her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Magazine, Glamour, Teen Vogue, and the New York Times. Her hobbies include reading tarot cards, watching Korean dramas and traveling. Currently, she holds the position of deputy editor, Metro at the New York Times and lives in Manhattan with an extremely misanthropic chihuahua. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Andrew Shaffer: Hope Rides Again
Wednesday July 17 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Join humorist Andrew Shaffer for an evening of unconventional political comedy and readings on the only New York stop of his 27-city publication tour for Hope Rides Again: An Obama Biden Mystery, the sequel to his New York Times bestseller Hope Never Dies. Book signing to follow.
About the book: Following a long but successful book tour, Joe Biden has one more stop before he can return home: Chicago. His old pal Barack Obama has invited him to meet a wealthy benefactor whose endorsement could turn the tide for Joe if he decides to run for president. The two friends barely have time to catch up before another mystery lands in their laps: Obama’s prized Blackberry is stolen. When their number-one suspect winds up full of lead on the South Side, the police are content to write it off as just another gangland shooting. But Joe and Obama smell a rat… Set against the backdrop of a raucous city on St. Patrick’s Day, Joe and Obama race to find the shooter, only to uncover a vast conspiracy that goes deeper than the waters of Lake Michigan—which is exactly where they’ll spend the rest of their retirement if they’re not careful. Andrew Shaffer is the New York Times best-selling author of the Obama Biden Mystery series (Quirk), the satirical thriller The Day of the Donald: Trump Trumps America (Crooked Lane Books), and the Goodreads Choice semifinalist Fifty Shames of Earl Grey: A Parody (Da Capo Press/Hachette Books), among other humorous fiction and nonfiction books for HarperCollins and Penguin Random House. He lives in Kentucky with his wife, the author Tiffany Reisz. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Native Tongue Author Panel: The Legacy of Suzette Haden Elgin
Thursday July 18 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Join us for a panel in celebration of late author Suzette Haden Elgin's upcoming release Native Tongue, featuring a discussion of her legacy and feminist science fiction with authors Jennifer Marie Brissett, Bethany C. Morrow, Rebecca Romney, and Eliza Cushman Rose as moderator.
Jennifer Marie Brissett is the author of the novels ELYSIUM (2014) and ELEUSIS (forthcoming 2020), and is currently working on ERINYES, the third and final novel of the series. Her work has been the finalist for a number of awards, and won the Philip K. Dick Special Citation. Her short stories can be found in FIYAH Magazine, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Lightspeed Magazine, Motherboard Vice (Terraform), Uncanny Magazine, The Future Fire, the anthology APB: Artists against Police Brutality, and other publications. She is currently based in New York City, and teaches in the online MFA program in Creative Writing at Southern New Hampshire University. Bethany C Morrow is an author of speculative literary fiction, and a recovering expatriate. A California native, she has lived in Bangor (Wales, UK), Montreal (Quebec, Canada), and now resides just over the border in the US northeast. She is the author of Mem: A Novel and editor of the young adult anthology Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance, as well as author of the forthcoming YA book The Sound & The Stone. Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer and author. In 2017, she published Printer's Error, a subversive history of printed books. She appears regularly as a rare book specialist on the HISTORY Channel. She is the co-founder of the Honey & Wax Prize, a book collecting award for young women. Now settled in Washington DC, she is the co-founder of the rare book firm Type Punch Matrix. Eliza Cushman Rose teaches in the German & Slavic Department at UNC Chapel Hill, where her research explores science fiction from East and Central Europe. Her translations of Polish academic and art writing have been published widely. As an author of science fiction, she has attended the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop, and her stories can be found in Interzone (UK), the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (US), and Galaxies SF (FR). This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Asma Uddin: When Islam Is Not a Religion w/ Khalid Latif
Friday July 19 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Religious liberty lawyer Asma Uddin has long considered her work defending people of all faiths to be a calling more than a job. Yet even as she seeks equal protection for Evangelicals, Sikhs, Muslims, Native Americans, Jews, and Catholics alike, she has seen an ominous increase in attempts to criminalize Islam and exclude American Muslims from their inalienable rights.
Somehow, the view that Muslims aren’t human enough for human rights or constitutional protections is moving from the fringe to the mainstream?along with the claim “Islam is not a religion.” This conceit affects all Americans because the loss of liberty for one means the loss of liberties for everyone. When Islam Is Not a Religion also looks at how faith in America is being secularized and politicized, and the repercussions this has on debates about religious freedom and diversity. Asma T. Uddin is a religious liberty lawyer who has worked on cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appellate courts, and federal trial courts, including Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., Holt v. Hobbs, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC, Islamic Center of Murfreesboro v. Rutherford County, EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, and more. She is the founding editor-in-chief of altmuslimah.com and was an executive producer for the Emmy and Peabody-nominated docuseries, The Secret Life of Muslims. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Newsweek, Refinery29, and Religion News Service. Imam Khalid Latif is a University Chaplain for New York University, Executive Director of the Islamic Center at NYU, chaplain for the NYPD, and co-founder of Honest Chops, an organic halal butcher shop in NYC. Under his leadership, the Islamic Center at NYU became the first ever established Muslim student center at an institution of higher education in the United States. Imam Latif’s exceptional dedication and ability to cross interfaith and cultural lines on a daily basis brought him recognition throughout the city, so much so that in 2007 Mayor Michael Bloomberg nominated Imam Latif to become the youngest chaplain in history of the New York City Police Department at the age of 24. Most recently, Imam Latif was selected as one of 60 NYC leaders to serve on May Bill Deblasio’s Transition Team, helping to recommend and select individuals for key roles in the current NYC administration and also appointed to a “Task Force to Combat Hate” by NYC Public Advocate Tisch James to deal with the rise in Islamophobic, anti-semitic and anti-sikh sentiment in NYC. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Colson Whitehead: The Nickel Boys w/ Clint Smith at St. Ann's
Saturday July 20 | 7:00PM - 8:00PM
Books Are Magic is proud to host Pulitzer Prize–winning author Colson Whitehead for his new novel, The Nickel Boys, at St. Ann's Church!
In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is “as good as anyone.” Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides “physical, intellectual and moral training” so the delinquent boys in their charge can become “honorable and honest men.” In reality, the Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear “out back.” Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold onto Dr. King’s ringing assertion “Throw us in jail and we will still love you.” His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. The tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys’ fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy. Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers. This event will be held at St. Ann's Church at 157 Montague Street in Brooklyn, NY 
NYRB Book Club: Victorine
Monday July 22 | 7:00PM - 8:00PM
Books Are Magic is proud to host the (NYRB) Books Are Magic Book Club, a book club that discusses a different book by a female author in the New York Review Books catalog every other month.
This month we are discussing Victorine by Maude Hutchins. A sexual awakening novel like none other, mixing elements of Adleran psychology, surrealism, and the American pastoral. Victorine is thirteen, and she can’t get the unwanted surprise of her newly sexual body, in all its polymorphous and perverse insistence, out of her mind: it is a trap lying in wait for her at every turn (and nowhere, for some reason, more than in church). Meanwhile, Victorine’s older brother Costello is struggling to hold his own against the overbearing, mean-spirited, utterly ghastly Hector L’Hommedieu, a paterfamilias who collects and discards mistresses with scheming abandon even as Allison, his wife, drifts through life in a narcotic daze. And Maude Hutchins’s Victorine? It’s a sly, shocking, one-of-a-kind novel that explores sex and society with wayward and unabashedly weird inspiration, a drive-by snapshot of the great abject American family in its suburban haunts by a literary maverick whose work looks forward to—and sometimes outstrips—David Lynch’s Blue Velvet and the contemporary paintings of Lisa Yuskavage and John Currin. Maude Phelps McVeigh Hutchins (1899—1991) was born in Long Island, New York. She received a B.F.A from the Yale School of Fine Arts in 1926. In 1921 she married Robert Maynard Hutchins, the youngest president of the University of Chicago, and had three children. She was the author of several books, including Blood on the Dove, Love Is Pie, Honey on the Moon, and A Diary of Love, and co-wrote and illustrated Diagrammatics with Mortimer Adler. After she divorced Robert in 1948, Maude moved to Southport, Connecticut. She died on March 28, 1991, in Fairfield, Connecticut. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Kate Zambreno: Screen Tests w/ Haley Mlotek
Tuesday July 23 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
A new work equal parts observational micro-fiction and cultural criticism reflecting on the dailiness of life as a woman and writer, on fame and failure, aging and art, from the acclaimed author of Heroines, Green Girl, and O Fallen Angel.
In the first half of Kate Zambreno’s astoundingly original collection Screen Tests, the narrator regales us with incisive and witty swatches from a life lived inside a brilliant mind, meditating on aging and vanity, fame and failure, writing and writers, along with portraits of everyone from Susan Sontag to Amal Clooney, Maurice Blanchot to Louise Brooks. The series of essays that follow, on figures central to Zambreno’s thinking, including Kathy Acker, David Wojnarowicz, and Barbara Loden, are manifestoes about art, that ingeniously intersect and chime with the stories that came before them. Kate Zambreno is the author of the novels Green Girl and O Fallen Angel. She is also the author of Heroines and Book of Mutter. She lives in Brooklyn with her family. Haley Mlotek is a writer and editor based in New York. She is currently working on a book about romance and divorce. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Laura Lippman: Lady in the Lake w/ Sarah Weinman
Wednesday July 24 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
In 1966, Baltimore is a city of secrets that everyone seems to know—everyone, that is, except Madeline “Maddie” Schwartz. Last year, she was a happy, even pampered housewife. This year, she’s bolted from her marriage of almost twenty years, determined to make good on her youthful ambitions to live a passionate, meaningful life.
Maddie wants to matter, to leave her mark on a swiftly changing world. Drawing on her own secrets, she helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl—assistance that leads to a job at the city’s afternoon newspaper, the Star. Working at the newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found just the story to do it: a missing woman whose body was discovered in the fountain of a city park lake. Cleo Sherwood was a young African-American woman who liked to have a good time. No one seems to know or care why she was killed except Maddie—and the dead woman herself. Maddie’s going to find the truth about Cleo’s life and death. Cleo’s ghost, privy to Maddie’s poking and prying, wants to be left alone. Maddie’s investigation brings her into contact with people that used to be on the periphery of her life—a jewelry store clerk, a waitress, a rising star on the Baltimore Orioles, a patrol cop, a hardened female reporter, a lonely man in a movie theater. But for all her ambition and drive, Maddie often fails to see the people right in front of her. Her inability to look beyond her own needs will lead to tragedy and turmoil for all sorts of people—including the man who shares her bed, a black police officer who cares for Maddie more than she knows. Since Laura Lippman’s debut, she has won multiple awards and critical acclaim for provocative, timely crime novels set in her beloved hometown of Baltimore. Laura has been won more than twenty awards for her fiction, including the Edgar, and been nominated for thirty more. Her books have been translated into twenty-plus languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her family. Sarah Weinman is the editor of Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s (Library of America) and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives (Penguin). She covers book publishing for Publishers Marketplace, and has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, the Guardian, and Buzzfeed, among other outlets. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Erica Blumenthal + Nikki Huganir: Yes Way Rosé w/ Jordan Salcito
Thursday July 25 | 7:00PM - 8:30PM
Fresh, easygoing, and a little bit whimsical, rose is more than just a wine -- it's shorthand for an entire lifestyle. And nothing embodies the lighthearted joy of "drinking pink" more than the wine and lifestyle brand Yes Way Rosé.
Equal parts informative and celebratory, Yes Way Rosé is both a wine primer and a source of lifestyle inspiration. Readers will learn the ins and outs of rose production, as well as the major wine-making regions, before diving into food pairings, rose cocktails, and even rose-inspired astrology. From Rosé 101, tasting notes, and recipes, to tips on maintaining "rose vibes" and throwing an incredible soiree, Erica Blumenthal and Nikki Huganir translate their vibrant, humorous, and well-informed passion for rose into an irresistible gift book. Overflowing with full-color photographs and cheeky illustrations, Yes Way Rosé is the perfect read for anyone who has ever fallen under the alluring spell of pink wine. Yes Way Rosé was founded by Erica Blumenthal + Nikki Huganir, best friends in New York City who discovered a passion for the pink drink over many summer nights together. In 2013, while both working in the fashion world (Erica as a Style section columnist for The New York Times and Nikki as a graphic designer at Madewell), they launched @yeswayrose on Instagram as a way to share how the wine was inspiring humor and happiness in their lives. A community of like-minded enthusiasts quickly followed and they evolved into a modern wine and lifestyle brand that represents a fun (+ female) perspective with a mission of spreading positivité. They now have two French rosés, Yes Way Rosé and Yes Way Rosé Bubbles, as well as a newly released version of their rosé in cans. Their first book, Yes Way Rosé: A Guide To The Pink Wine State of Mind, was released in April 2019 by Running Press. Jordan Salcito is a wine veteran, with over a decade spent in the industry. She began her career hostessing at wd~50 before becoming a prep cook at DANIEL, sommelier and manager of Eleven Madison Park, then eventually Wine & Beverage Director for David Chang's Momofuku restaurants. An impassioned entrepreneur, Jordan is the founder of RAMONA, an organic Italian grapefruit wine spritz, and Bellus Wines. Jordan's wine program at Momofuku has been named a James Beard Foundation semifinalist multiple times and in 2017, was awarded “Most Original Wine List in the World” from World Of Fine Wine. Jordan is a Master Sommelier Candidate, a Wine Enthusiast “40 Under 40,” and a 2018 James Beard Foundation semifinalist for "Outstanding Wine, Spirits or Beer Professional.” This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Tyler and Kim Malek: Salt & Straw Ice Cream Party!
Friday July 26 | 7:00PM - 8:00PM
Join us for an ice cream party to celebrate the release of Salt & Straw Ice Cream Cookbook!
Salt & Straw is the ice cream brainchild of two cousins, Tyler and Kim Malek, who had a vision but no recipes. But that’s what made them great. They turned to their friends for advice: chefs, chocolatiers, brewers, and food experts of all kinds, and what came out is a super-simple base that takes five minutes to make, and an ice cream company that sees new flavors and inspiration everywhere they look. Using that base (really, you can make it in about the time it takes you to decide on a scoop in their shop), here are dozens of Salt & Straw’s most beloved, innovative, (and a couple of their most controversial) flavors, like Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons, Roasted Strawberry and Toasted White Chocolate, and Buttered Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. But more importantly, this book reveals what they’ve learned, how to tap your own creativity and how to invent flavors of your own, based on whatever you see around you. Because ice cream isn’t just a thing you eat, it’s a way to live. Tyler Malek is the cofounder and head ice cream maker for Salt & Straw Ice Cream in Portland, Oregon. Since opening in 2011, Malek and his cousin, cofounder and CEO Kim Malek, have taken their ice cream from an ice cream cart serving 8 flavors to 18 brick-and-mortar locations, creating more than 300 flavors. Malek was selected as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2015 and was Eater Young Guns Semi-Finalist in 2013. JJ GOODE is a Brooklyn-based food writer and the coauthor of the books A Girl and Her Pig with April Bloomfield, Pok Pok with Andy Ricker, State Bird Provisions with Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinksi, among others. This event is free! 
Storytime with Susan Verde: Unstoppable Me
Saturday July 27 | 11:00AM - 12:00PM
Join us for the exciting launch of the New York Times-bestselling author Susan Verde's Unstoppable Me! This lyrical picture book about a little boy with boundless energy celebrates the exuberance of an active child.
I am movement Heat Static electricity Fueled by food And powered by PLAY! Unstoppable Me is about the sort of energetic child we all know and love—full of fun and play and a bit exhausting! In this book, we see an unstoppable little boy run, jump, and soar through his day. He takes a little time to refuel, then he's back at it—zooming and zipping around. This poetic, joyful book—filled with illustrations as bright and energetic as the boy himself— is a celebration of the active child. Susan Verde grew up in Greenwich Village in New York City. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and a Master’s in reading remediation and became an elementary school teacher at a private school in Bridgehampton, NY. She is the author of many picture books including I am Yoga and I am Peace. She currently lives in East Hampton, New York with her family. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Storytime with Tamara Pizzoli: Tallulah the Tooth Fairy CEO
Sunday July 28 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Meet Tallulah the Tooth Fairy CEO. She's a successful businesswoman, a well-rounded individual, and a fairy!
Tallulah thinks she knows just about everything about running her company, Tooth Titans Inc. But then one day she comes upon a new challenge—a little boy hasn't only lost a tooth, he's really lost it. In that it's gone and he has nothing to leave under his pillow, which means there's nothing for Tallulah to take. What's a fairy to do? Luckily, Tallulah has a great team of advisors who help her solve the problem. Dr. Tamara Pizzoli is an African American educator born in Texas. For the past few years, she has run a boutique publishing house from Rome, Italy, where she lives with her four young children. pizzolimedia.com This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Kristin Rockaway: How to Hack a Heartbreak w/ Brenda Janowitz
Monday July 29 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
By day, Mel Strickland is an underemployed help-desk tech at a start-up incubator, Hatch, where she helps entitled brogrammers—"Hatchlings"—who can't even fix their own laptops but are apparently the next wave of start-up geniuses. And by night, she goes on bad dates with misbehaving dudes she's matched with on the ubiquitous dating app Fluttr.
But after one dick pic too many, Mel has had it. Using her brilliant coding skills, she designs an app of her own, one that allows users to log harrassers and abusers in the online dating space. It's called JerkAlert, and it goes viral overnight. Mel is suddenly in way over her head. Worse still, her almost-boyfriend, the dreamy Alex Hernandez—the only non-douchey guy at Hatch—has no idea she's the brains behind the app. Soon, Mel is faced with a terrible choice: one that could destroy her career, love life and friendships, or change her life forever. Kristin Rockaway is a native New Yorker with an insatiable case of wanderlust. After working in the IT industry for far too many years, she traded the city for the surf and chased her dreams out to Southern California, where she spends her days happily writing stories instead of software. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with her husband and son, and planning her next big vacation. Brenda Janowitz is the author of five novels and the Books Correspondent for PopSugar. Her sixth novel, THE GRACE KELLY DRESS, will be published by Harper Collins/Graydon House in March 2020. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Redbook, USA Today, Bustle, The Forward, the New York Post, Publisher’s Weekly, Hello Giggles, Writer’s Digest Magazine, WritersDigest.com, and xojane. www.brendajanowitz.com This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Lyz Lenz: God Land w/ Jia Tolentino
Thursday August 01 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
In the wake of the 2016 election, Lyz Lenz watched as her country and her marriage were torn apart by the competing forces of faith and politics. A mother of two, a Christian, and a lifelong resident of middle America, Lenz was bewildered by the pain and loss around her―the empty churches and the broken hearts. What was happening to faith in the heartland?
From drugstores in Sydney, Iowa, to skeet shooting in rural Illinois, to the mega churches of Minneapolis, Lenz set out to discover the changing forces of faith and tradition in God's country. Part journalism, part memoir, God Land is a journey into the heart of a deeply divided America. Lenz visits places of worship across the heartland and speaks to the everyday people who often struggle to keep their churches afloat and to cope in a land of instability. Through a thoughtful interrogation of the effects of faith and religion on our lives, our relationships, and our country, God Land investigates whether our divides can ever be bridged and if America can ever come together. Lyz Lenz is a contributing writer for the Columbia Journalism Review. Her writing has been published in Glamour, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Pacific Standard and others. She is author of the book God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America. Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at the New Yorker. She grew up in Texas, went to University of Virginia, and got her MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan. Trick Mirror, her first essay collection, will be published by Random House in 2019. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Jia Tolentino: Trick Mirror
Monday August 05 | 11:30AM - 12:30PM
Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity.
Trick Mirror is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly through a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Tolentino writes about a cultural prism: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the advent of scamming as the definitive millennial ethos; the literary heroine’s journey from brave to blank to bitter; the punitive dream of optimization, which insists that everything, including our bodies, should become more efficient and beautiful until we die. Gleaming with Tolentino’s sense of humor and capacity to elucidate the impossibly complex in an instant, and marked by her desire to treat the reader with profound honesty, Trick Mirror is an instant classic of the worst decade yet Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker. Raised in Texas, she studied at the University of Virginia before serving in Kyrgyzstan in the Peace Corps and receiving her MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan. She was the contributing editor at The Hairpin and the deputy editor at Jezebel, and her work has appeared in the The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Grantland, Slate, Bon Apetit, SPIN, Pitchfork, and FADER. She lives in Brooklyn. This event is free! Open to the public. 
Richard Russo: Chances Are...w/ Eddie Joyce
Wednesday August 07 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
One beautiful September day, three men convene on Martha’s Vineyard, friends ever since meeting in college circa the sixties. They couldn’t have been more different then, or even today—Lincoln’s a commercial real estate broker, Teddy a tiny-press publisher, and Mickey a musician beyond his rockin’ age. But each man holds his own secrets, in addition to the monumental mystery that none of them has ever stopped puzzling over since a Memorial Day weekend right here on the Vineyard in 1971: the disappearance of the woman each of them loved—Jacy Rockafellow. Now, more than forty years later, as this new weekend unfolds, three lives are displayed in their entirety while the distant past confounds the present like a relentless squall of surprise and discovery. Shot through with Russo’s trademark comedy and humanity, Chances Are… also introduces a new level of suspense and menace that will quicken the reader’s heartbeat throughout this absorbing saga of how friendship’s bonds are every bit as constricting and rewarding as those of family or any other community.
For both longtime fans and lucky newcomers, Chances Are… is a stunning demonstration of a highly acclaimed author deepening and expanding his remarkable achievement. Richard Russo is the author of eight novels, most recently Everybody’s Fool and That Old Cape Magic; two collections of stories; and the memoir Elsewhere. In 2002 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, which like Nobody’s Fool was adapted to film, in a multiple-award-winning HBO miniseries; in 2016 he was given the Indie Champion Award by the American Booksellers Association; and in 2017 he received France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine. He lives in Portland, Maine. Eddie Joyce is the author of SMALL MERCIES (Viking 2015), which was shortlisted for the Grand Prix De Litterature Americaine in France and was a NY Times Big City Book Club pick. He has written for N+1, Electric Literature, and Akashic Books. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three daughters. He was born and raised on Staten Island. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Sarah Elaine Smith: Marilou Is Everywhere w/ Tony Tulathimutte
Monday August 12 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Fourteen-year-old Cindy and her two older brothers live in rural Pennsylvania, in a house with occasional electricity, two fierce dogs, one book, and a mother who comes and goes for months at a time. Deprived of adult supervision, the siblings rely on one another for nourishment of all kinds. As Cindy’s brothers take on new responsibilities for her care, the shadow of danger looms larger and the status quo no longer seems tolerable.
So when a glamorous teen from a more affluent, cultured home goes missing, Cindy escapes her own family’s poverty and slips into the missing teen’s life. As Jude Vanderjohn, Cindy is suddenly surrounded by books and art, by new foods and traditions, and most important, by a startling sense of possibility. In her borrowed life she also finds herself accepting the confused love of a mother who is constitutionally incapable of grasping what has happened to her real daughter. As Cindy experiences overwhelming maternal love for the first time, she must reckon with her own deceits and, in the process, learn what it means to be a daughter, a sister, and a neighbor. Marilou Is Everywhere is a powerful, propulsive portrait of an overlooked girl who finds for the first time that her choices matter. Sarah Elaine Smith holds MFAs in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and poetry from the Michener Center for Writers. She is also a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Wallace fellowship. Tony Tulathimutte’s novel Private Citizens was called “the first great millennial novel” by New York Magazine. A graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he has written for The New York Times, VICE, WIRED, Playboy, The Believer, The New Yorker, N+1, The New Republic, and others. He has received a Whiting Award and an O. Henry Award. You can apply for his writing class in Brooklyn, CRIT, at crit.works. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Madeline Stevens: Devotion w/ Hannah Lillith Assadi
Tuesday August 13 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Ella is flat broke: wasting away on bodega coffee, barely making rent, seducing the occasional strange man who might buy her dinner. Unexpectedly, an Upper East Side couple named Lonnie and James rescue her from her empty bank account, offering her a job as a nanny and ushering her into their moneyed world. Ella’s days are now spent tending to the baby in their elegant brownstone or on extravagant excursions with the family. Both women are just twenty-six—but unlike Ella, Lonnie has a doting husband and son, unmistakable artistic talent, and old family money.
Ella is mesmerized by Lonnie’s girlish affection and disregard for the normal boundaries of friendship and marriage. Convinced there must be a secret behind Lonnie’s seemingly effortless life, Ella begins sifting through her belongings, meticulously cataloguing lipstick tubes and baby teeth and scraps of writing. All the while, Ella’s resentment grows, but so does an inexplicable and dizzying attraction. Soon she will be immersed so deeply in her cravings—for Lonnie’s lifestyle, her attention, her lovers—that she may never come up for air. Madeline Stevens is a writer from Boring, Oregon currently based in Los Angeles. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and her work has been published in a variety of literary magazines. She spent seven years working as a nanny in New York City. Devotion is her first novel. Hannah Lillith Assadi received her MFA in fiction from the Columbia University School of the Arts. She was raised in Arizona by her Jewish mother and Palestinian father. She lives in Brooklyn. Sonora is her first novel. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Sady Doyle: Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers w/ Talia Lavin
Wednesday August 14 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Women have always been seen as monsters. Men from Aristotle to Freud have insisted that women are freakish creatures, capable of immense destruction.
Maybe they are. And maybe that’s a good thing…. Sady Doyle, hailed as “smart, funny and fearless” by the Boston Globe, takes readers on a tour of the female dark side, from the biblical Lilith to Dracula’s Lucy Westenra, from the T-Rex in Jurassic Park to the teen witches of The Craft. She illuminates the women who have shaped our nightmares: Serial killer Ed Gein’s “domineering” mother Augusta; exorcism casualty Anneliese Michel, starving herself to death to quell her demons; author Mary Shelley, dreaming her dead child back to life. These monsters embody patriarchal fear of women, and illustrate the violence with which men enforce traditionally feminine roles. They also speak to the primal threat of a woman who takes back her power. In a dark and dangerous world, Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers asks women to look to monsters for the ferocity we all need to survive. Sady Doyle is an author, journalist and opinion writer. Her latest book, Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy and the Fear of Female Power is devoted to exploring monstrous images of women in pop culture, mythology and society, and the mechanisms of patriarchal control that exist to tamp down women's fearsome potential. Her first book, Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear... and Why was published by Melville House in 2016. She lives in upstate New York. Talia Lavin is a writer based in Brooklyn, whose musings on food, faith and the far right have been featured in the New Yorker, the Washington Post and the New Republic. Her book about white nationalism online will be published by Hachette Books in 2020. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Chris L. Terry: Black Card
Thursday August 15 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Chris L. Terry’s Black Card is an uncompromising examination of American identity. In an effort to be “black enough,” a mixed-race punk rock musician indulges his own stereotypical views of African American life by doing what his white bandmates call “black stuff.” After remaining silent during a racist incident, the unnamed narrator has his Black Card revoked by Lucius, his guide through Richmond, Virginia, where Confederate flags and memorials are a part of everyday life.
Determined to win back his Black Card, the narrator sings rap songs at an all-white country music karaoke night, absorbs black pop culture, and attempts to date his black coworker Mona, who is attacked one night. The narrator becomes the prime suspect and earns the attention of John Donahue, a local police officer with a grudge dating back to high school. Forced to face his past, his relationships with his black father and white mother, and the real consequences and dangers of being black in America, the narrator must choose who he is before the world decides for him. Chris L. Terry was born in 1979 to an African American father and an Irish American mother. He has an MA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University and a creative writing MFA from Columbia College Chicago. Terry’s debut novel, Zero Fade, was named a Best Book of the Year by Slate and Kirkus Reviews. Terry lives in Los Angeles with his family. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Carrie Goldberg: Nobody's Victim
Friday August 16 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Riveting, as well as an essential timely conversation-starter, Nobody’s Victim invites readers to join Carrie on the front lines of the war against sexual violence and privacy violations as she fights for revenge porn and sextortion laws, uncovers major Title IX violations, and sues the hell out of tech companies, schools, and powerful sexual predators. Her battle ground is the courtroom; her crusade to transform clients from victims into warriors.
In gripping detail, Carrie shares the diabolical ways her clients are attacked and how she, through her unique combination of advocacy, badass relentlessness, risk-taking, and client-empowerment, gets justice for them all. There are stories about a woman whose ex-boyfriend made fake bomb threats in her name and caused a national panic; a fifteen year old girl who was sexually assaulted on school grounds, then suspended when she reported the attack; and a man whose ex-boyfriend used a dating app to send over 1200 men to his home and work for sex. With breathtaking honestly, Carrie even shares stories of her own shattering abuse. While her clients are a diverse group—from every gender, sexual orientation, age, class, race, religion, occupation and background - offenders are not. They are highly predictable. In this book, Carrie offers a taxonomy of the four types of offenders she encounters most often at her firm: assholes, psychos, pervs, and trolls. “If we recognize the patterns of these perpetrators,” she explains, “we know how to fight back.” Carrie Goldberg is a victim's rights lawyer in Brooklyn, litigating for victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and blackmail, and is most known for her work involving revenge porn. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Carrie spent five years working for Nazi victims, and before starting her firm in 2014, she worked at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City. She has been profiled in The New Yorker, The London Times, Glamour, Jezebel, and the New York Post, and has written op-eds for the Washington Post and the Huffington Post. She was featured in the documentary Netizens, and her life and work is the basis for an upcoming fictional legal procedural television show. This event is free! 
Bassey Ikpi: I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying w/ Melissa Febos
Wednesday August 21 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Bassey Ikpi was born in Nigeria in 1976. Four years later, she and her mother joined her father in Stillwater, Oklahoma —a move that would be anxiety ridden for any child, but especially for Bassey. Her early years in America would come to be defined by tension: an assimilation further complicated by bipolar II and anxiety that would go undiagnosed for decades.
By the time she was in her early twenties, Bassey was a spoken word artist and traveling with HBO’s Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam, channeling her experiences into art. But something wasn’t right—beneath the façade of the confident performer, Bassey’s mental health was in a precipitous decline, culminating in a breakdown that resulted in hospitalization and a diagnosis of Bipolar II. Determined to learn from her experiences—and share them with others—Bassey became a mental health advocate and has spent the fourteen years since her diagnosis examining the ways mental health is inextricably intertwined with every facet of ourselves and our lives. Viscerally raw and honest, the result is an exploration of the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of who we are—and the ways, as honest as we try to be, each of these stories can also be a lie. Bassey (BOSS-ee) Ikpi is a Nigerian-born American spoken-word poet, writer, and mental health advocate. She has appeared on HBO's Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam five times and her poetry has opened shows for Grammy Award-winning artists. Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir, Whip Smart (St. Martin’s Press 2010), and the essay collection, Abandon Me (Bloomsbury 2017), which was a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist, a Publishing Triangle Award finalist, an Indie Next Pick, and was widely named a Best Book of 2017. Febos is the inaugural winner of the Jean Córdova Nonfiction Award from LAMBDA Literary and the recipient of the 2017 Sarah Verdone Writing Award from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She has been awarded fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, The Barbara Deming Memorial Foundation, The BAU Institute, and Ragdale. Her essays have recently appeared in Tin House, Granta, The Believer, and The New York Times. She lives in Brooklyn. This event is free! Let us know you're coming on Facebook. 
Karen Abbott: The Ghosts of Eden Park w/ Susannah Cahalan and Ada Calhoun
Friday August 23 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
In the early days of Prohibition, long before Al Capone became a household name, a German immigrant named George Remus quits practicing law and starts trafficking whiskey. Within two years he’s a multi-millionaire. The press calls him “King of the Bootleggers,” writing breathless stories about the Gatsby-esque events he and his glamorous second wife, Imogene, host at their Cincinnati mansion, with party favors ranging from diamond jewelry for the men to brand-new Pontiacs for the women. By the summer of 1921, Remus owns 35 percent of all the liquor in the United States.
Pioneering prosecutor Mabel Walker Willebrandt is determined to bring him down. Willebrandt’s bosses at the U.S. Attorney’s office hired her right out of law school, assuming she’d pose no real threat to the cozy relationship they maintain with Remus. Eager to prove them wrong, she dispatches her best investigator, Franklin Dodge, to look into his empire. It’s a decision with deadly consequences. With the fledgling FBI on the case, Remus is quickly imprisoned for violating the Volstead Act. Her husband behind bars, Imogene begins an affair with Dodge. Together, they plot to ruin Remus, sparking a bitter feud that soon reaches the highest levels of government—and that can only end in murder. Karen Abbott is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City, American Rose, and, most recently, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and the Christian Science Monitor. A native of Philadelphia, she now lives in New York City. Susannah Cahalan is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of BRAIN ON FIRE: My Month of Madness, a memoir about her struggle with a rare autoimmune disease of the brain. She writes for the New York Post. Her work has also been featured in the New York Times, Scientific American Magazine, Glamour, Psychology Today, and other publications. She lives in Brooklyn. Ada Calhoun is the author of St. Marks Is Dead, named one of the best books of the year by Kirkus Reviews and The Boston Globe; and Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give, one of the top ten memoirs of the year according to W magazine. Her next book, Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis, is due out in January 2020. This event is free! 
Caleb Crain: Overthrow
Tuesday August 27 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Join us for a dramatic reading of Caleb Crain’s Overthrow, featuring readers: Christine Smallwood, Jana Prikryl, Dan Smith, and Leon Neyfakh.
About the book: One autumn night, as a grad student named Matthew is walking home from the subway, a handsome skateboarder catches his eye. Leif, mesmerizing and enigmatic, invites Matthew to meet his friends, who are experimenting with tarot cards. It’s easier to know what’s in other people’s minds than most people realize, the friends claim. Do they believe in telepathy? Can they actually do it? Though Matthew should be writing his dissertation on the poetry of kingship, he soon finds himself falling in love with Leif—a poet of the internet age—and entangled with Leif’s group as they visit the Occupy movement’s encampment across the river, where they hope their ideas about radical empathy will help heal a divided world and destabilize the 1%. When the group falls afoul of a security contractor freelancing for the government, the news coverage, internet outrage, and legal repercussions damage the romances and alliances that hold the friends together, and complicate the faith the members of the group have—or, in some cases, don’t have—in the powers they’ve been nurturing. Elspeth and Raleigh, two of Leif’s oldest friends, will see if their relationship can weather the strains of criminal charges; Chris and Julia, who drifted into the group more recently, will have their loyalties tested; and Matthew, entranced by the man at the center of it all, will have to decide what he owes Leif and how much he’s willing to give him. All six will be forced to reckon with the ambiguous nature of transparency and with the insidious natures of power and privilege. Caleb Crain has written for The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, n+1, and The New York Times Book Review. He is the author of the novel Necessary Errors and the critical study American Sympathy. He was born in Texas, grew up in Massachusetts, and lives in Brooklyn, New York. This event is free! |