Temim Fruchter read from City of Laughter. Temim is a queer nonbinary anti-Zionist Jewish writer in Brooklyn, and cohost of Pete’s Reading Series. City of Laughter follows four generations of Eastern European Jewish women over the course of a century. The New York Times says Temim brings “a queer sensibility and a deep understanding of Modern Orthodox Jewish tradition to novel writing.”

Elwin Cotman read from Weird Black Girls, a short story collection. Elwin is from Pittsburgh and has written five collections of poetry and three other short story collections. Kirkus gave the collection a rave review saying “Sharp, poignant, funny, and, above all, filled with the joy of invention—a must-read.”

Tyriek White read from We Are a Haunting, set in Brooklyn, following a working class family and inherited ghosts. NPR says that “This is a stunningly original and beautiful novel of devotion.”

Gina Chung read from Green Frog, a short story collection. She gave a shoutout to her home state of New Jersey, leading to cheers from the crowd. The collection of stories explores Korean American womanhood, bodies, animals, and transformation, like the title story where two sisters deal with the grief of their recently dead mother. Gabino Iglesias at NPR said of the collection that it was “wildly entertaining, wonderfully diverse, and always delivered with a superb understanding of pacing and economy of language.”

Emma Copley Eisenberg read from House Mates. She read a hilarious excerpt describing the relationships of the trust fund housemates living on a block filled with people who are not quite as well off. Rachel León at the Chicago Review of Books interviewed Emma about the novel where she explained, “The book is interested in living more than dying, I think, in creating more than destroying”.

Teddy Wayne might just hold the title for most appearances at Franklin Park Reading series with six under his belt. He began the evening by joking how much better it was the last time he had read at Franklin Park, which was in 2020 during the pandemic. Then the reading was on Zoom, and he was in more comfortable pants, and he joked about being able to browse in other tabs. Or maybe he wasn’t joking. He read from The Winner, his 6th novel set in a gated beach community during the pandemic. I reviewed the novel at the Chicago Review of Books.