Elyssa Goodman hosts the series and starts off each night with a brief reading ensuring that none of her guest readers has to read first. She read from a piece published on InsideHook about photographer Bunny Yeager.

Harry James Hanson read two biographies from their book Legends of Drag: Queens of a Certain Age. The collection of narratives includes fascinating biographies of drag performers in New York and on their journey elsewhere, like Provincetown.

The book includes color photos as well as colorful stories about the drag queens.

Diskha Basu is the author of two novels, Destination Wedding and
The Windfall. But since Miss Manhattan is a nonfiction reading series, she read from a piece she wrote for the Cut.

“As a vain predominantly fiction writer most of my nonfiction is about me,” she joked.

Ada Calhoun read from her book Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me. She explained that she normally works as a ghost writer having written more than twenty biographies.

Normally she will get about twelve hours of recorded material to work with. One day in her father’s basement she came across forty hours of interviews of Frank O’Hara. Her father had been working on an authorized biography. She tried taking up the project, only to find herself instead writing this memoir.

Since it was about Frank O’Hara, she started off by reading one of his poems.