Rachel Cantor launched her second novel Good On Paper last week. The novel follows Shira Greene who is asked to translate an important book that will make her translating career. Cantor was joined by Susan Bernofsky, a translator, at Book Culture on Wednesday to discuss the novel and the art of translation. The book is set in the Upper West Side and Cantor says she was excited to read it in that neighborhood.

More »

James Hannaham read from his latest novel, Delicious Foods, last week at Center for Fiction in Manhattan. He was joined, eventually, by Joshua Furst, delayed by shoddy subway service. Delicious Foods explores both modern slavery and drug addiction in Louisiana.

More »

Michael Cunningham read from his latest book, A Wild Swan, a collection of short stories at BookCourt in Brooklyn. He brought him his friend and musician Billy Hough.

The story collection pulls from classic fairy tales, though all with modern twists. The idea originated in Cunningham’s childhood when his parents would read to him. He describes himself as a junkie for stories as kid.

More »

Garth Rish Hallberg’s debut novel is 900-plus-page epic. City On Fire chronicles nine principal characters through 1970s New York City. He read from the work and took questions at BookCourt last week.

More »

Owen Sheers is a poet, playwright, and novelist. He has worked with British war veterans producing a play retelling their traumas. His latest novel, I Saw a Man follows the healing process of Michael Marshall widowed when his journalist wife is killed on assignment in Pakistan. He discussed the novel at McNally Jackson Books with Joshua Ferris, author of To Rise Again at a Decent Hour.

More »

Sigal Samuel, a playwright and journalist, released her debut novel, The Mystics of Mile End earlier this month. She spoke with Buzzfeed’s Isaac Fitzgerald at Community Bookstore.

More »

Sloane Crosley is one of the funniest women writing today. Her two previous essay collections, How Did You Get This Number and I Was Told There’d be Cake, are confessional, often self-deprecating, and always funny. Her debut novel, The Clasp, continues to explore similar themes. She launched the book–available in multiple colored covers–at BookCourt in Brooklyn last week.

The novel, she explains, is actually a tribute to the short story, a genre she adores. The narrative is told through three different characters while mixing in vignettes of other people the three main characters encounter.

More »

A thunderstorm couldn’t have been more fitting weather for the launch of Upright Beasts, Lincoln Michel’s debut collection of short fiction out now from Coffee House Press.

Michel, who earned his MFA at Columbia University, is a model literary citizen. He is the co-founder of Gigantic, the online editor of Electric Literature and a drawer of “Monster Lit” trading cards. He also describes himself as a “fairly frequent tweeter.”

More »