An overflowing crowded showed up at McNally Jackson Books to listen to the two authors read and discuss their work. Davis read new stories and selections from the collection Can’t and Won’t, now in paperback. Tillman, who’s latest book is the collection of essays, What Would Lynne Tillman Do?, read selected short stories, including one written for Gigantic Magazine.
Blonde women become the conveyers of a rabies-like illness in the latest novel by Emily Schultz, The Blondes. Told from the perspective of red headed Hazel speaking her yet unborn child, the novel unfolds over the course of several months as infected blondes violently attack people. Schultz discussed the novel at BookCourt in Brooklyn with Julia Fierro, author of Cutting Teeth.
T.C Boyle discussed his latest novel, The Harder They Come, at Barnes and Noble on 86th Street last week. The book is the twenty-fifth book from the author.
I always wanted to be a writer. I loved writing stories and poems about things I knew (mostly) nothing about. Writing was an escape from the shitty life I could have had. Growing up in the South Bronx, I didn’t have many outlets. There was riding my bike up and down the Concourse, graffiti, dodging gang recruitment, bottle rockets, and police, the latest installment of Mortal Kombat, and watching the fathers on the block play dominoes until the their wives stopped feigning interest in the click-slam of palms on folding tables.
Paul Beatty read from his newest novel, The Sellout at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn. He was joined in conversation by Sam Lipsyte. When Beatty took the podium, he seemed temporarily overcome with emotion for a moment. He explained that he felt similarly overwhelmed recently at a reading in Detroit. The reason, he explains, was the feeling of satisfaction from completing the book: “I realized I was really close to getting what was in my head on the page.”
The Franklin Park Reading Series “Novel Night” featured five readers from Peter Carey, the two-time Booker Prize-winning Australian novelist and the executive director of the Hunter College MFA program, to Kashana Cauley, a writer with stories in Tin House and Esquire whose debut novel has yet to be released.
Scottish author Irvine Welsh found himself in Jersey City at WORD Bookstores to talk about his latest novel, The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins. The book is his first American story featuring young women in their twenties in Miami. He was joined for conversation by Nathan Larson, author of The Dewey Decimal System.
A year ago, two important things happened to Adam Sternbergh. His daughter was born and eight days later, his debut novel, Shovel Ready was launched at BookCourt. He returned to the Brooklyn bookstore to celebrate the launch of the sequel, Near Enemy.