Nell Zink flutters into a room. She is mesmerizing. She exudes an energy of curiosity interested in observing and experiencing the place around her rather than the performance of reading her book. A bouquet of flowers arrives for her at the store. She says they are from a friend who she has not seen since 1989, a florist in Florida now. Their arrival is symptomatic of the life of Nell Zink; she collects people on a journey that seems forever incomplete.

More »

Meet Bijan Stephen and Alanna Okun.

For those not in the know, Alanna and Bijan are a pretty big deal. Alanna is a senior editor at BuzzFeed; she has appeared on The TODAY Show, Good Morning, America!, The Katie Couric Show, NBC’s Nightly News, and NPR; her writing has appeared in Billfold, Architizer, and Side B, et cetera. Bijan is an associate editor at The New Republic; his work has appeared in The Paris Review, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, N+1, VICE, and The New Inquiry; he’s a writer for Rusty Foster’s cult TinyLetter Today in Tabs (subscribe, for real tho), and also happens to be Ta-Nehisi Coates’s twitter-son.

More »

Jabari Asim might have been better known as a journalist and author of essential nonfiction works like his social history the N Word. He has always considered himself a fiction writer though, and now he has released a novel Only the Strong. He spoke about the new book at Powerhouse Arena with Mike Sacks, Asim’s former colleague at the Washington Post and a magazine editor.

More »

Scott Alexander Hess celebrated his latest novel, The Butcher’s Sons, last week at Boxers NYC, a rooftop bar in Hell’s Kitchen. Set in that neighborhood in the 1930’s, The Butcher’s Sons follows three Irish brothers. Hess was joined for conversation by Joseph Salvatore, editor at The Brooklyn Rail.

More »

A self-described hipster, Viet Thanh Nguyen is a full-time Associate Professor at USC. He wrote his debut novel, The Sympathizer, during a two year sabbatical. He read from the novel at Greenlight discussing the book with his editor Peter Blackstock.

More »

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.

More »

Roberto F. Santiago, an English Kills Review contributor, is a 2014 Lamda Literary fellow and a recipient of the 2011 Alfred C. Carey Poetry Prize. His debut poetry collection, Angel Park, came out this April.

Congratulations on your debut poetry collection! I had such a great time reading it. The moment I finished, I started writing love poems and food poems (your work made me pretty hungry), and I just kept going back to your lines. I wanted to stay in the world of Angel Park for as long as possible.

Thank you so very much! That is high praise. I didn’t fully realize my words had the power to make people hungry. I thought they only worked on me. Y’know, it wouldn’t be the first on my list of desired superpowers…but I’ll take it!

More »