What began as a short story eight years ago grew into Ted Thompson’s debut novel, The Land of Steady Habits. Thompson, a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s workshop, launched the novel at BookCourt in Brooklyn. Cupcakes were served.
Tova Mirvis returned to the Upper West Side to read from her new novel Visible City. The 82nd Street Barnes and Noble served a fitting host for the sprawling novel that unfolds in the surrounding neighborhood.
D. Foy’s debut novel, Made to Break was sixteen years in the making. It is the story of five friends trapped in a mountain cabin as they explore their various failures and vicious behavior. He read from the novel at McNally Jackson and was joined in conversation by Sean Madigan Hoen. Soho Press will release Hoen’s memoir, Songs Only You Know next month. It examines his crumbling family alongside his time as an indie musician.
Community Bookstore hosted a discussion between Kyle Minor and Vol 1 Brooklyn editor Jason Diamond. Minor’s story collection Praying Drunk (January 2014) has been more than a decade in the making and includes a novella. Diamond asked him about that and his future projects.
Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay joins the war story tradition with his new collection, Redeployment (March 2014). Powerhouse Arena hosted him and his former writing instructor, author Patrick McGrath for a conversation. Klay, who served as a Public Affairs Officer in Iraq, also holds an MFA degree from Hunter College.
In his latest book, biographer Blake Bailey has turned his attention to his own life and the lives of his family with memoir, The Splendid Things We Planned (February 2014). McNally Jackson hosted Bailey for a reading along with Darin Strauss for a conversation.
WORD Bookstore’s Jersey City location hosted Dagmara Dominczyk and her husband, the actor Patrick Wilson, to discuss her novel, The Lullaby of Polish Girls (June 2013). The book was recently released in paperback, and as of today, a translated version has been released in Dominczyk’s native Poland.