Books are Magic

NYRB Book Club: A Chill in the Air

Tuesday May 28 | 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 A Chill in the Air by Iris Origo.

In 1939 it was not a foregone conclusion that Mussolini would enter World War II on the side of Hitler. In this previously unpublished and only recently discovered diary, Iris Origo, author of the classic War in Val d’Orcia, provides a vivid account of how Mussolini decided on a course of action that would devastate his country and ultimately destroy his regime.

Though the British-born Origo lived with her Italian husband on an estate in a remote part of Tuscany, she was supremely well-connected and regularly in touch with intellectual and diplomatic circles in Rome, where her godfather, William Phillips, was the American ambassador. Her diary describes the Fascist government’s growing infatuation with Nazi Germany as Hitler’s armies marched triumphantly across Europe and the campaign of propaganda and intimidation that was mounted in support of its new aims. The book ends with the birth of Origo’s daughter and Origo’s decision to go to Rome to work with prisoners of war at the Italian Red Cross.

Together with War in Val d’Orcia, A Chill in the Air offers an indispensable record of Italy at war as well as a thrilling story of a formidable woman’s transformation from observer to actor at a great historical turning point.

Iris Origo (1902–1988) was a British-born biographer and writer. She lived in Italy and devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce, which she purchased with her husband in the 1920s. During the Second World War, she sheltered refugee children and assisted many escaped Allied prisoners of war and partisans in defiance of Italy’s fascist regime and Nazi occupation forces. She is the author of Images and Shadows; A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939–1940; Leopardi: A Study in Solitude; and The Merchant of Prato, among others.

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Mandy Berman: The Learning Curve w/ Erin Somers

Wednesday May 29 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM

Fiona and Liv are seniors at Buchanan College, a small liberal arts school in rural Pennsylvania. Fiona, who is still struggling after the death of her younger sister, is spending her final year sleeping with abrasive men she meets in bars. Liv is happily coupled and on the fast track to marriage with an all-American frat boy. Both of their journeys, and their friendship, will be upended by the relationships they develop with Oliver Ash, a visiting literature professor whose first novel was published to great success at the age of twenty-six.

Now Oliver is in his early forties, with thinning hair, rugged good looks, and a checkered past—there is talk of a relationship with an underage woman, a former student, at a previous teaching job. Meanwhile, Oliver’s wife, Simone, is pursuing an academic research project in Berlin, raising their five-year-old son, dealing with her husband’s absence, and wondering if their marriage is beyond repair. This sly, stunning, wise-beyond-its-years novel is told from the perspectives of the three women, and showcases Berman’s talent for exploring the complexities of desire, friendship, identity, and power dynamics in the contemporary moment.

Mandy Berman is the author of Perennials, which was a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick and names a best book of Summer 2017 by Vanity Fair, Elle, Redbook, and Domino, among others. Her writing has appeared in Time, Poets & Writers, and many more outlets. She lives in Brooklyn and teaches creative writing at Manhattanville College and Montclair State University.

Erin Somers’s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House Open Bar, Ploughshares, American Short Fiction, McSweeney’s, the Cincinnati Review, and many other publications. She holds an MFA from the University of New Hampshire and was a 2016 NYC Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow and a 2016 Millay Colony resident. She lives in Beacon, New York with her husband and daughter. Stay Up with Hugo Best is her first novel.

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Hanif Abdurraqib: Go Ahead in the Rain w/ Cheryl Boyce-Taylor and Angel Nafis

Thursday May 30 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM

How does one pay homage to A Tribe Called Quest? The seminal rap group brought jazz into the genre, resurrecting timeless rhythms to create masterpieces such as The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. Seventeen years after their last album, they resurrected themselves with an intense, socially conscious record, We Got It from Here . . . Thank You 4 Your Service, which arrived when fans needed it most, in the aftermath of the 2016 election. Poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib digs into the group’s history and draws from his own experience to reflect on how its distinctive sound resonated among fans like himself. The result is as ambitious and genre-bending as the rap group itself.

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of a New York Times best-selling biography on A Tribe Called Quest called Go Ahead in the Rain (University of Texas Press, February 2019), The Crown Ain't Worth Much (Button Poetry/Exploding Pinecone Press, 2016), nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, and They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us (Two Dollar Radio, 2017), named a best book of 2017 by NPR, Pitchfork, Oprah Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Slate, Esquire, GQ, and Publisher's Weekly, among others. He is a Callaloo Creative Writing Fellow, a poetry editor at Muzzle Magazine, and a member of the poetry collective Echo Hotel with poet/essayist Eve Ewing. Abdurraqib has two forthcoming books including a new collection of poems A Fortune For Your Disaster (Tin House, 2019) and a history of Black performance in the United States titled They Don't Dance No Mo' (Random House, 2020).

Trinidad born and Queens bred, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is a poet and teaching artist. A Finalist for the 2018 Paterson Poetry Prize, her latest book, Arrival: Poems (Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL is a rich collection of migration poems. Ms. Boyce-Taylor is a recipient of the 2015 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award.

Angel Nafis is the author of BlackGirl Mansion (Red Beard Press, 2012). She earned her BA at Hunter College and her MFA in poetry at Warren Wilson College. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed Reader, them, Poetry Magazine, The BreakBeat Poets anthologies series and elsewhere. Nafis is the recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem, Millay Colony, the Poetry Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Founder and curator of the Greenlight Bookstore Poetry Salon, she is also half of the ODES FOR YOU Tour with poet, musician, and visual artist Shira Erlichman, and with poet Morgan Parker, she runs The Other Black Girl Collective. Reading poems and facilitating workshops across the country she lives and works in Brooklyn.

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Mary Beth Keane: Ask Again, Yes w/ J. Courtney Sullivan

Monday June 03 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM

Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope are two NYPD rookies assigned to the same Bronx precinct in 1973. They aren’t close friends on the job, but end up living next door to each other outside the city. What goes on behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne, sets the stage for the stunning events to come.

Ask Again, Yes by award-winning author Mary Beth Keane, is a beautifully moving exploration of the friendship and love that blossoms between Francis’s youngest daughter, Kate, and Brian’s son, Peter, who are born six months apart. In the spring of Kate and Peter’s eighth grade year a violent event divides the neighbors, the Stanhopes are forced to move away, and the children are forbidden to have any further contact.

But Kate and Peter find a way back to each other, and their relationship is tested by the echoes from their past. Ask Again, Yes reveals how the events of childhood look different when reexamined from the distance of adulthood—villains lose their menace, and those who appeared innocent seem less so. Kate and Peter’s love story is marked by tenderness, generosity, and grace.

Mary Beth Keane attended Barnard College and the University of Virginia, where she received an MFA. In 2011, she was named one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35,” and in 2015 she was awarded a John S. Guggenheim fellowship for fiction writing. She currently lives in Pearl River, New York, with her husband and their two sons. She is the author of The Walking People, Fever, and Ask Again, Yes.

J. Courtney Sullivan is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Commencement, Maine, The Engagements, and Saints For All Occasions. Maine was named a Best Book of the Year by Time magazine, and a Washington Post Notable Book for 2011. The Engagements was one of People Magazine’s Top Ten Books of 2013 and an Irish Times Best Book of the Year. It is soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon and distributed by Fox 2000, and it will be translated into 17 languages. Her latest novel, Saints For All Occasions, was named one of the ten best books of the year by the Washington Post, a New York Times Critic’s Pick for 2017, and a New England Book Award nominee. Courtney’s writing has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Chicago Tribune, New York magazine, Elle, Glamour, Allure, Real Simple, and O: The Oprah Magazine, among many others. She is a co-editor, with Courtney Martin, of the essay anthology Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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Elizabeth Gilbert: City of Girls @ St. Ann Church

Tuesday June 04 | 7:00PM - 9:00PM

In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance. Her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theater called the Lily Playhouse. There Vivian is introduced to an entire cosmos of unconventional and charismatic characters, from the fun-chasing showgirls to a sexy male actor, a grand-dame actress, a lady-killer writer, and no-nonsense stage manager. But when Vivian makes a personal mistake that results in professional scandal, it turns her new world upside down in ways that it will take her years to fully understand. Ultimately, though, it leads her to a new understanding of the kind of life she craves - and the kind of freedom it takes to pursue it. It will also lead to the love of her life, a love that stands out from all the rest.

Now eighty-nine years old and telling her story at last, Vivian recalls how the events of those years altered the course of her life - and the gusto and autonomy with which she approached it. “At some point in a woman’s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time,” she muses. “After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is.” Written with a powerful wisdom about human desire and connection, City of Girls is a love story like no other.

Elizabeth Gilbert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love, as well as several other internationally bestselling books. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her forthcoming novel City of Girls is a rollicking, sexy tale of the New York City theater world during the 1940s. It will be published in June of 2019 by Riverhead Books.

This event will be held at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church (157 Montague St). Let us know you're coming on Facebook.

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Ocean Vuong: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous w/ Alexander Chee

Tuesday June 04 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born—a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam—and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.

Ocean Vuong is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds, winner of the Whiting Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His writings have also been featured in The Atlantic, Harper's, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is his first novel.

Alexander Chee is the best-selling author of the novels The Queen of the Night and Edinburgh. He is a contributing editor at the New Republic, an editor at large at Virginia Quarterly Review, and a critic at large at the Los Angeles Times. His work has appeared in The Best American Essays 2016, the New York Times Magazine, Slate, Guernica, and Tin House, among others. He is an associate professor of English at Dartmouth College.

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De'Shawn Charles Winslow: In West Mills w/ Helen Phillips

Thursday June 06 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM

Azalea “Knot” Centre is determined to live life as she pleases. Let the people of West Mills say what they will; the neighbors’ gossip won’t keep Knot from what she loves best: cheap moonshine, nineteenth-century literature, and the company of men. And yet, Knot is starting to learn that her freedom comes at a high price. Alone in her one-room shack, ostracized from her relatives and cut off from her hometown, Knot turns to her neighbor, Otis Lee Loving, in search of some semblance of family and home.

Otis Lee is eager to help. A lifelong fixer, Otis Lee is determined to steer his friends and family away from decisions that will cause them heartache and ridicule. After his failed attempt as a teenager to help his older sister, Otis Lee discovers a possible path to redemption in the chaos Knot brings to his doorstep. But while he’s busy trying to fix Knot’s life, Otis Lee finds himself powerless to repair the many troubles within his own family, as the long-buried secrets of his troubled past begin to come to light.

Set in an African American community in rural North Carolina from 1941 to 1987, In West Mills is a magnificent, big-hearted small-town story about family, friendship, storytelling, and the redemptive power of love.

A 2017 graduate of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, De’Shawn Charles Winslow holds a BFA in creative writing and an MA in English literature from Brooklyn College. He has received scholarships from the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. In West Mills is his debut novel. He lives in New York City.

Helen Phillips’s fifth book, The Need, is forthcoming in the summer of 2019. Her collection Some Possible Solutions received the 2017 John Gardner Fiction Book Award. Her novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat, a New York Times Notable Book of 2015, was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her collection And Yet They Were Happy was named a Notable Book by the Story Prize. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and the Italo Calvino Prize. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, the New York Times, and Tin House, and on Selected Shorts. She is an associate professor at Brooklyn College.

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Storytime with Mickey Rapkin: It's Not a Bed, It's a Time Machine w/ Amy Ryan

Saturday June 08 | 11:00AM - 12:00PM

Bedtime can be frightening—a dark room, spooky shadows, silence. Our narrator worries about what’s hiding in the dark, until his stuffed bunny, Floppy, tells him a secret: His bed is really a time machine.

And they set off on an adventure into the past, to the coolest time ever—the age of the dinosaurs—to meet the coolest animal ever—the tyrannosaurus rex! This night’s sleep will span millions of years, but it’s so fun it’ll feel like it’s over in the blink of an eye.

It’s Not a Bed, It’s a Time Machine is the ultimate goodnight picture book, showing that going to sleep is nothing to be afraid of. Instead, it’s just the beginning of a time-spanning adventure.

Mickey Rapkin is a journalist and screenwriter whose first book, PITCH PERFECT, inspired the hit film series about a cappella singing. Previously a senior editor at GQ, he is also the author of THEATER GEEK, and has written for The New York Times, ELLE, Bon Appetit, and National Geographic Traveler. He lives in Los Angeles when he isn’t time traveling.

Born, raised and currently living in N.Y., Amy Ryan started her career in theatre. On Broadway she appeared in The Sisters Rosensweig and The Women, as well as Uncle Vanya and A Streetcar Named Desire which earned her Tony Award nominations. She was last seen onstage in Mike Bartlett’s play LOVE LOVE LOVE which earned her an OBIE award. Amy can be seen in the upcoming films STRANGE BUT TRUE, LOST GIRLS and WHAT IS LIFE WORTH with Michael Keaton. Other film credits include: GONE BABY GONE (Academy Award nomination), BEAUTIFUL BOY, BIRDMAN, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE, BRIDGE OF SPIES, GOOSEBUMPS, ABUNDANT ACREAGE AVAILABLE, LOUDER THAN BOMBS, DON VERDEAN, BREATHE IN, CLEAR HISTORY, DEVIL’S KNOT, WIN WIN, GREEN ZONE, JACK GOES BOATING, CHANGELING, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD, CAPOTE, DAN IN REAL LIFE, WAR OF THE WORLDS, and KEANE. Amy’s television work includes “The Office,” “In Treatment” and “The Wire.”

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Robin Benway: Far From the Tree w/ Maris Kreizman and Courtney Maum

Saturday June 08 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM

Being the middle child has its ups and downs.

But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, and finds a brother and sister that she never could have expected.

Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs.

And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the foster care system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets and fears are best kept close to the vest, where they can’t hurt anyone but him.

Robin Benway is a National Book Award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author of six novels for young adults, including Far From the Tree, Audrey, Wait!, the AKA series, and Emmy & Oliver. Her books have received numerous awards and recognition, including the PEN America Literary Award, the Blue Ribbon Award from the Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books, ALA’s Best Books for Young Adults, and ALA’s Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults. In addition, her novels have received starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and Publishers Weekly, and have been published in more than 25 countries. Her most recent book, Far From the Tree, won the 2017 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the 2018 PEN America Award, and was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, PBS, Entertainment Weekly, and the Boston Globe.

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 is a writer and critic whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The LA Times, Vanity Fair, BuzzFeed, The Toast, The Hairpin, The Cut, Vulture, Esquire, GQ, OUT Magazine, and more. She was previously the editorial director of digital content at B&N.com, and a publishing outreach lead at Kickstarter. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, dog, and books.

Courtney Maum is the author of the novels Costalegre, Touch and I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You, the chapbook Notes from Mexico, and the forthcoming handbook Before and After the Book Deal: A writer's guide to finishing, publishing, promoting, and surviving your first book. Her writing and essays have been widely published in such outlets as BuzzFeed; the New York Times; O, the Oprah Magazine; and Modern Loss. She is the founder of the learning collaborative, The Cabins, and she also works as a product and cosmetic shade namer from her home in Connecticut, where she helps writers with their agent query letters and other publishing conundrums.

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Elaine Welteroth: More Than Enough at First Presbyterian

Tuesday June 11 | 7:00PM - 9:00PM

Books Are Magic is proud to host Elaine Welteroth to celebrate her memoir, More Than Enough!

In this part-manifesto, part-memoir, the revolutionary editor who infused social consciousness into the pages of Teen Vogue explores what it means to come into your own—on your own terms.

Throughout her life, Elaine Welteroth has climbed the ranks of media and fashion, shattering ceilings along the way. In this riveting and timely memoir, the groundbreaking journalist unpacks lessons on race, identity, and success through her own journey, from navigating her way as the unstoppable child of a unlikely interracial marriage in small-town California to finding herself on the frontlines of a modern movement for the next generation of change makers.

Welteroth moves beyond the headlines and highlight reels to share the profound lessons and struggles of being a barrier-breaker across so many intersections. As a young boss and the only black woman in the room, she’s had enough of the world telling her—and all women—they’re not enough. As she learns to rely on herself by looking both inward and upward, we’re ultimately reminded that we’re more than enough.

Elaine Welteroth is an award-winning journalist, author, and judge on the new Project Runway. She was most recently editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue where she in 2017 became the youngest person ever appointed editor-in-chief and in 2012 had been the first African American ever to hold the post of beauty and health director at a Condé Nast publication. Prior to Teen Vogue, she was the senior beauty editor at Glamour and the beauty and style editor at Ebony. She’s now a leading expert and advocate for the next generation of change-makers. She has written for the hit show Grown-ish and has appeared on-camera for a range of media outlets including ABC News and Netflix. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Mona Awad: Bunny w/ Emily Culliton

Thursday June 13 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn’t be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England’s Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort—a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other “Bunny,” and are often found entangled in a group hug so tight they become one.

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies’ fabled “Smut Salon,” and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door—ditching her only friend, Ava, a caustic art school dropout, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the sinister yet saccharine world of the Bunny cult and starts to take part in their ritualistic off-campus “Workshop” where they magically conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur, and her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies are brought into deadly collision.

Mona Awad is the author of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize that won the Colorado Book Award, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and an Honorable Mention from the Arab American Book Awards. The recipient of an MFA in Fiction from Brown University and a Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Denver, she has published work in Time, VICE, Electric Literature, McSweeney’s, Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere.

Emily Culliton's debut novel, THE MISFORTUNE OF MARION PALM, was published by Knopf in August 2017. She earned her doctorate in creative writing at the University of Denver. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Quarterly Review, the Seattle Review, and Two Serious Ladies. She lives in Brooklyn, and is currently at work on her second book.

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Taffy Brodesser-Akner: Fleishman Is in Trouble w/ Emma Straub

Tuesday June 18 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM

Dr. Toby Fleishman wakes up each morning surrounded by women. Women who are self-actualized and independent and know what they want—and, against all odds, what they want is Toby. Who knew what kind of life awaited him once he finally extracted himself from his nightmare of a marriage? Who knew that there were women out there who would actually look at him with softness and desire? But just as the winds of his optimism are beginning to pick up, they’re quickly dampened, and then extinguished, when his ex-wife, Rachel, suddenly disappears.

Toby thought he knew what to expect when he moved out: weekends and every other holiday with the kids, some residual bitterness, tense co-parenting negotiations. He never thought that one day Rachel would just drop their children off at his place and never come back. As Toby tries to figure out what happened and what it means, all while juggling his patients at the hospital, his never-ending parental duties, and his new, app-assisted sexual popularity, his tidy narrative of a spurned husband is his sole consolation. But if Toby ever wants to really understand where Rachel went and what really happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen it all that clearly in the first place.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine. Prior to that, her work appeared in GQ, ESPN the Magazine, Matter, Details, Texas Monthly, Outside, Self, Cosmopolitan and many other publications. Fleishman Is In Trouble is her first novel.

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.

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Catherine Chung: The Tenth Muse w/ Idra Novey

Wednesday June 19 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM

From childhood, Katherine knows she is different, and that her parents are not who they seem to be. But in becoming a mathematician, she must face the most human of problems—who is she? What is the cost of love, and what is the cost of ambition?

On her quest to conquer the Riemann hypothesis, the greatest unsolved mathematical problem of her time, she turns to a theorem with a mysterious history that holds both the lock and key to her identity, and to secrets long buried during World War II in Germany. Forced to confront some of the most consequential events of the twentieth century and rethink everything she knows of herself, she strives to take her place in the world of higher mathematics and finds kinship in the stories of the women who came before her—their love of the language of numbers connecting them across generations.

Catherine Chung won an Honorable Mention for the PEN/Hemingway Award with her first novel, Forgotten Country, and has been a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, a Granta New Voice, and a Director's Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She has a degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago, and worked at a think tank in Santa Monica before receiving her MFA from Cornell University. She has published work in The New York Times and Granta, and is a fiction editor at Guernica Magazine. She lives in New York City.

Idra Novey is the author most recently of the novel Those Who Knew, an Indie Next Pick and Best Book of 2018 with NPR, Esquire, BBC, and O Magazine. Her first novel Ways to Disappear received the Brooklyn Public Library Fiction Prize and the Sami Rohr Prize. She is the translator of Clarice Lispector's The Passion According to G.H. and three other books from Portuguese and Spanish.

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Deborah Shapiro: The Summer Demands w/ Carlene Bauer

Thursday June 20 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM

On the verge of her fortieth birthday and shaken by a recent miscarriage, Emily inherits an abandoned summer camp in Massachusetts. She and her husband move onto the property and make grand plans to revitalize the land. But they soon discover that their inheritance includes an unexpected guest. On a walk through the old campgrounds she once frequented as a girl, Emily finds, living undetected in one of the cabins, a magnetic twenty-two-year-old named Stella.

As the two women begin spending time together—talking and drinking, swimming in the lake, watching seductive French films through long afternoons—Emily finds herself playing at performing various roles relative to Stella: friend, mother, lover. Each encounter they share promises to bring Emily a little closer to an understanding of her own identity, but it also puts her marriage and future at risk. How much does she really know about Stella? Why is Stella here, and what does she want, and what might she take with her, if and when she leaves?

Deborah Shapiro was born and raised outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Sight Unseen, Tin House, and elsewhere. Her first novel, The Sun in Your Eyes, was selected as an Editors’ Choice by The New York Times Book Review, as well as one of the season’s best reads by Harper’s Bazaar, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, Chicago Tribune, and Vulture, among other publications. She lives with her husband and son in Chicago.

Carlene Bauer is the author of the memoir Not That Kind of Girl, the novel Frances and Bernard, and a second novel forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her work has been published in The Virginia Quarterly Review, n+1, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, and Elle.

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Shannon Watts: Fight Like a Mother

Monday June 24 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM

On the morning of December 14, 2012, stay-at-home-mom Shannon Watts was folding laundry when the news broke that there had been a shooting in Newtown, Connecticut involving young children. Outraged and heartbroken, Shannon felt an overwhelming need to act. Discovering there was no organization for gun violence correspondent to MADD—Mothers Against Drunk Driving—she vowed to build it.

Fight Like a Mother is the powerful story of how one mother’s cry for action started a national women’s movement—Mom’s Demand Action—to fight some of the richest and most powerful people in America: the gun lobby. It is an inspiring record of how outraged mothers became engaged citizens, creating a powerful grassroots network of local chapters in all 50 states. Along with her observations and wisdom, Watts shares inspiring messages of perseverance, courage, and compassion, and outlines the core mantras and principles that MDA has used to battle the NRA and the intimidating tactics they use to prevent gun safety progress. Throughout, Shannon proves that a woman with a laptop can be more powerful than a man with a gun.

Shannon Watts is a mother of five who, prior to founding Moms Demand Action, was a stay-at-home mom and former communications executive. The day after the Sandy Hook tragedy, Shannon started a Facebook group with the message that all Americans can and should do more to reduce gun violence. The online conversation turned into a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that protect people from gun violence. Moms Demand Action has established a chapter in every state of the country and is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country, with more than 5 million supporters. In addition to her work with Moms Demand Action, Watts is an active board member of Emerge America, one of the nation’s leading organizations for recruiting and training women to run for office. Her book, Fight Like a Mother, will be released in May of 2019.

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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.

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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

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.

This event is free! 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.

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

inQluded x Books Are Magic present: Qmmunity in Publishing

Wednesday July 31 | 7:30PM - 8:30PM

Brooklyn-based Literary Magazine and platform, inQluded will be hosting a QTPOC author panel. This panel will feature MG & YA authors: Arvin Ahmadi, Kacen Callender, Camryn Garrett, and Mark Oshiro as moderator.

inQluded is a new platform for and by LGBTQIA+ youth of color. Their online magazine features interviews, essays, poetry and more. In addition to their online magazine they plan to create programming that engages their community and allies. This QTIPOC author panel is just the beginning. Visit them at inqluded.org

Arvin Ahmadi grew up outside Washington, DC. He graduated from Columbia University and has worked in the tech industry. When he's not reading or writing books, he can be found watching late-night talk show interviews and editing Wikipedia pages. Down and Across is his first novel, followed by Girl Gone Viral.

Kacen Callender is originally from Saint Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Kacen has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from the New School’s writing for children program. They are also the author of the middle grade novel Hurricane Child. This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story is their debut young adult novel. You can visit them online at www.kacencallender.com.

Camryn Garrett was born and raised in New York. When she was thirteen, she was selected as a TIME for Kids reporter, where she interviewed celebrities like Warren Buffett and Kristen Bell. Her writing has appeared in the Huffington Post, MTV, and Rookie Magazine. Camryn is also interested in film and is a student at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is a proud advocate of diverse stories and writers. You can find her on Twitter @dancingofpens, tweeting from a laptop named Stevie. Her debut novel, FULL DISCLOSURE, is available for pre-order and will debut on October 29.

Mark Oshiro is the Hugo-nominated writer of the online Mark Does Stuff universe (Mark Reads and Mark Watches), where they analyze book and TV series. Anger is a Gift is their debut YA novel. It was honored with the 2019 Schneider Family Book Award for Best Teen Book and is a 31st Annual Lammy Awards finalist in the LGBTQ Children's/Young Adult category.

This event is free! Donations to inQluded welcome.