French author Adrien Bosc explores the lives of the passengers of an ill fated 1949 Air France flight in his new book Constellation. Based on the real people aboard the plane, Bosc extrapolates fictionalized vignettes and narratives about their lives drawing from what they left behind. He spoke with David Samuels, the literary editor at Tablet, at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn. The book was translated from the French by Willard Wood.

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Luc Sante discussed The Other Paris with Jason Diamond of Vol 1. Brooklyn at WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn last week. Sante previously has written Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York, a portrait of the city. The Other Paris similarly explores Paris.

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Kevin Powell is a poet, activist, former candidate for Congress, author, and even once starred in a reality television show before reality television was a thing. His memoir The Education of Kevin Powell follows in the tradition of other autobiographies and traces his origins in Jersey City to his life in Brooklyn. He was a Greenlight Bookstore to discuss the book with journalist Ted Hamm.

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I first met Kate in a bookstore. She had already launched the website Last Night’s Reading a month or two before. I recognized her from other readings and saw that she was recording the event and drawing notes. A few weeks earlier, Bookstalker Julia Bartz had caught me in the act of notetaking and introduced herself to me so I followed her lead, introducing myself to Kate. I’m sure I frightened her with my enthusiasm. Over the following years, I’ve run into Kate at various events. She has a keen sense about choosing which events to attend, and whenever I see her in the audience, I feel reassured about my choice for the evening. Sometimes Kate, Julia, and I end up attending and then writing about / drawing the same event: when the trifecta is in the house, you know its going to be the very best type of event.

Kate Gavino launched her book Last Night’s Reading at Housing Works, but the event was as much a celebration of literary readings as it was the book. She assembled an A-List cast of authors to read embarrassing stories, and she presented slideshow survival guide to literary events.

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On January 21, The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) named its finalists for the publishing year 2014 in the categories of poetry, criticism, biography, autobiography, nonfiction and fiction. On the evening of March 11, those finalists read their work to a packed New School auditorium, and on the evening of March 12, one finalist from […]

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Daphne Merkin read her latest collection of essays, The Fame Lunches: On Wounded Icons, Money, Sex, the Brontës, and the Importance of Handbags, at BookCourt in Brooklyn. She was joined by Katie Roiphe, a columnist and author, well known for The Morning After: Fear, Sex and Feminism.

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Last year, New York City’s literary community wondered if the city retained the magic of writerly mythology. For some, the question was never serious. For others, they had already left. The woman responsible for all of this sudden concern with place was Sari Botton, editor of the essay collection Goodbye to All That. Last December, Botton celebrated that book at Housing Works. The book had launched in October, leading to months long contemplation for many writers confronting their own debate as to whether they should stay or go.

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Thomas Page McBee, a long time columnist at The Rumpus, read from his memoir Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man. He was joined at WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn by poet and Buzzfeed editor Saeed Jones, author of the collection Prelude to Bruise.

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