Yaa Gyasi read from her debut novel Homegoing and took questions from the audience at Greenlight Bookstore last week. She was introduced by Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamers.
Leigh Stein is the author of the novel The Fallback Plan and poetry collection Dispatch from the Future. She launched her memoir Land of Enchantment at Powerhouse Books in Brooklyn (becoming the second author to read at the store’s new location on Adams Street). She was joined by Rachel Syme to discuss the memoir.
Nicole Dennis-Benn was at Housing Works Bookstore to discuss Here Comes the Sun with Tiphanie Yanique, author Land of Love and Drowning. Their discussion was moderated by Glory Edim, founder of Well-Read Black Girl.
The New York City Reading Series Census is an ongoing project to catalogue the contemporary literary scene. Any reading series curator in the New York area can take the survey here.
What is the name of the series, and what is the significance or meaning of the series name?
The series is The Prose Bowl. It evokes competition, since that’s our basic format, but is also a pun, because we’re a tongue-in-cheek show and also have a running gag wherein I love puns. Because I do!
The latest novels by Susan Daitch and Emily Barton both feature fictitious nations. Barton’s The Book of Esther supposes the existence of a Jewish state in Eastern Europe. Daitch’s novel, The Lost Civilization of Solucidir, follows the search for the the ruins of a fabled middle eastern city. Both women were at McNally Jackson Books to discuss their novels.