Hello, hello! My plan was to send this last week but then, you know, everything. These are events that I would seriously consider attending—or, at the very least, events which have piqued my interest in the books they’re highlighting. Feel free to email me with events, bookstores, and other relevant suggestions for things to include. I’m starring the books and/or authors I especially love. Tell me if you go! <3
Yours truly
(Not just September, because it’s my newsletter and I make the rules)
- Sayville: With Erika Swyler at Tiny Raccoon Books, Sat. 9/27 at 7 p.m.
- NYC: Must Love Memoir reading series, more details to come. Tues. 10/14 at 7:30 p.m.
- Ridgewood: Readings and convo with hannah baer (trans girl suicide museum) at Topos Too, Sun. 10/26 at 7 p.m.
- Kingston: Night School reading series at Rough Draft, more details to come. Tues. 11/18 at 6 p.m.
Kate Zambreno: Animal Stories
- Brooklyn: With Claire Fallon at Community Bookstore; Fri. 9/26 at 7 p.m.
*Elaine Hsieh Chou: Where Are You Really From
Haven’t read this one yet but I looooooved her debut, Disorientation.
- Virtual: With Delia Cai via Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Fri. 9/25 at 6 p.m.
- Las Vegas: With Tajja Isen at The Writer’s Block, Fri. 9/26 at 7 p.m.
Ali Gordon: We Have Reached the End of Our Show
- LA: At Skylight Books, Tues. 9/30 at 7 p.m.
- More in October.
Ariella Cook-Shonkoff: Raising Anti-Doomers: How to Bring Up Resilient Kids Through Climate Change and Tumultuous Times
- Marin County: With Bridget A. Lyons at Book Passage, Sun. 9/28 at 4 p.m.
*Jason Diamond: Kaplan’s Plot
- Milwaukee: With Chris Lee at Boswell Books, Thurs. 9/25 at 6:30 p.m.
- Washington, D.C.: With Emily Tamkin at Jackie Lee’s, Fri. 9/26 at 7 p.m.
- LA: With Matthew Specktor at Skylight Books, Mon. 9/29 at 7 p.m.
- San Francisco: With Colin Winnette at Booksmith, Tues. 9/30 at 7 p.m.
*Alma Katsu: Fiend
- St. Louis: “Literary salon and cocktail party” at The Novel Neighbor, Tues. 9/23 at 7 p.m.
- Fairway, KS: With Lisa Ball at Rainy Day Books, Wed. 9/24 at 7 p.m.
- Brooklyn: With Clay McLeod Chapman at WORD, Thurs. 9/25 at 7 p.m.
- More in October.
Michael Chabon & the Metropolitan Opera: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay 25th Anniversary celebration
- NYC & streaming: Conversation with WNYC’s Alison Stewart plus performances from The Metropolitan Opera’s adaptation of the novel—(who knew? not me!) at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, Wed. 9/24 at 6 p.m.
*Elin Hilderbrand: The Academy
From the event page(s): “Every Elin Hilderbrand event has a color. Wear [color] for the chance to be featured on Elin's social media!” My queen.
- Iowa City: At Prairie Lights, Wed. 9/24 at 7 p.m.
- Kansas City, MO: At Unity Temple on the Plaza, Thurs. 9/25 at 6 p.m.
*Yiming Ma: These Memories Do Not Belong To Us
Check out my recommendation here.
- LA: With Steph Cha Book Soup, Thurs. 9/25 at 7 p.m.
- Next month in Canada.
J. Hoberman: Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York Avant-Garde, Primal Happenings, Underground Movies, Radical Pop
- LA: With John Powers at Book Soup, Mon. 9/29 at 7 p.m.
Leni Zumas: Wolf Bells
- Marin County: With Tomas Moniz at Book Passage, Wed. 9/24 at 6 p.m.
- LA: With Meg Howrey at Skylight, Thurs. 9/25 at 7 p.m.
- More in October and November.
*****Ilana Masad: Beings
- LA: With Gabrielle Korn at Skylight, Wed. 9/24 at 7 p.m.
- Philadelphia: With Emma Copley Eisenberg at Head House Books, Mon. 9/29 at 6:30 p.m.
- Washington, D.C.: With Amber Sparks at The DC Pop-up, Tues. 9/30 at 7 p.m.
- More in October.
*Patricia Lockwood: Will There Ever Be Another You
- Brooklyn & streaming: With Jia Tolentino at Brooklyn Heights Library, Tues. 9/23 at 6 p.m.
- Washington, DC: With Emma Sarappo at Politics & Prose, Wed. 9/24 at 7 p.m.
- New Orleans: With Jami Attenberg at Blue Cypress Books, Sat. 9/27 at 5 p.m.
Amanda Uhle: Destroy This House
- Menlo Park: With Dave Eggers at Kepler’s Books, Tues. 9/30 at 7 p.m.
- More in October and beyond.
*Clint Smith & Sonja Cherry-Paul: How the Word Is Passed: Young Readers Edition
- Petersburg, VA: At Resist Booksellers, Tues. 9/30 at 6:30 p.m.
- Washington, D.C.: With Jason Reynolds at the MLK Jr. Memorial Library, Sun. 9/28 at 2 p.m.
- More in October.
Margeaux Feldman: Touch Me, I'm Sick: A Memoir in Essays
aka softcore_trauma
- San Francisco: With Amy Berkowitz at Book Passage, Wed. 9/24 at 5:30 p.m.
- Portland: With Emmy Marie at Powell’s, Mon. 9/29 at 7 p.m.
*****Edwidge Danticat: We’re Alone
- Gainesville: Book signing plus “cake and merriment” at The Lynx, Sat. 9/27 at 5:30 p.m.
*Mary Jo Bang: Dante's Paradiso translation
The end of her two-decade project of translating the Divine Comedy
- San Francisco & streaming: At Books on the Park, Thurs. 9/25 at 7 p.m.
*Susana M. Morris: Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler
- NYC & streaming: With Crunk Feminist Collection co-editor Brittney Cooper at The New York Society Library, Mon. 9/29 at 6:30 p.m.
- Brooklyn: With Ibi Zoboi at the Center for Brooklyn History, Tues. 9/30 at 6:30 p.m.
Sarah Gailey: Spread Me
- Richmond: With Sunny Moraine at Fountain Bookstore, Wed. 9/24 at 6 p.m.
- Columbus: At The Book Loft, Thurs. 9/25 at 7 p.m.
- Austin: With Gabino Iglesias at BookPeople, Fri. 9/26 at 7 p.m.
- San Diego: At Mysterious Galaxy, Sat. 9/27 at at 2 p.m.
*Rachel Kolb: Articulate: A Deaf Memoir of Voice
- Washington, D.C.: With Kristen Harmon at Politics & Prose, Tues. 9/23 at 7 p.m.
- More throughout the fall.
M.L. Rio: Hot Wax
- Raleigh: At Quail Ridge Books, Wed. 9/24 at 7 p.m.
- Chapel Hill: With Daniel Wallace at Flyleaf Books, Thurs. 9/25 at 6 p.m.
- Alexandria: At Old Town Books, Mon. 9/29 at 6:30 p.m.
- Baltimore: With Ronald Malfi at Park Books, Tues. 9/30 at 7 p.m.
- More in October.
Giri Nathan: Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis
- NYC: With Kevin Nguyen and Chloé Cooper Jones at McNally Jackson, Tues. 9/30 at 7 p.m.
Jeff Chang: Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America
- NYC: With Hua Hsu & featuring Chinatown Records at New Design High School, Fri. 9/26 at 7 p.m.
- Brooklyn: “Two Dragons in Hollywood: Bruce Lee, Anna May Wong, and the Past and Future of Asian American Representation” panel with Katie Gee Salisbury (Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong) at the Center for Brooklyn History, Wed. 9/24 at 6:30 p.m.
- More in October.
*Eliana Ramage: To the Moon and Back
- Cambridge: With Melissa Mogollon at Harvard Book Store, Thurs. 9/25 at 7 p.m.
*Makenna Goodman: Helen of Nowhere
- Providence: With Sasha Wiseman at Riffraff, Tues. 9/30 at 7 p.m.
*Exhibit: “Tove Jansson and the Moomins: The Door Is Always Open”
Check out my Moominville rec here.
- Brooklyn: “Celebrate the enduring magic of Moominvalley and the life of the visionary behind it, with immersive installations, archival materials, multilingual editions of Jansson’s books, and more” at the Brooklyn Public Library (Central) through Tues. 9/30. (I’m late to this!!!!)
Souvankham Thammavongsa: Pick a Color
- NYC: With Weike Wang at New Design High School, Tues. 9/30 at 7 p.m.
- More in October.
Samanta Schweblin: Good and Evil and Other Stories
- Brooklyn: With Valeria Luiselli at Books Are Magic, Mon. 9/29 at 7 p.m.
- Brookline: With Katie Henken Robinson at Brookline Booksmith, Tues. 9/30 at 7 p.m.
- More in October.
Yume Kitasei: Saltcrop
- NYC: With Steph Pilavin at The Strand, Tues. 9/30 at 7 p.m.
- More in October.
EY Zhao: Underspin
- NYC: With Giri Nathan at Yu & Me Books, Tues. 9/23 at 7 p.m.
- NYC: Book launch and ping-pong open play (cool?!??!?!?!) with prizes and “exclusive swag,” at PingPod, Wed. 9/24 at 6 p.m.
- More in October.
*Eric LaRocca: Burnt Sparrow: We Are Always Tender With Our Dead
First book in a new trilogy, sounds creepy as hell.
- St. Petersburg: With Jennifer McMahon at Tombolo Books, Mon. 9/29 at 7 p.m.
Thea Matthews: Grime
- Brooklyn & streaming: With Dorothea Lasky at Books Are Magic, Thurs. 9/25 at 7 p.m.
*Mona Awad: We Love You, Bunny
Brooklyn & streaming: With Melissa Albert at First Unitarian Church, Wed. 9/24 at 7 p.m.
Washington, D.C.: With Haili Blassingame at Politics & Prose, Thurs. 9/25 at 7 p.m.
Nashville: With Aly Plasterer at Paranassus Books, Fri. 9/26 at 6:30 p.m.
Austin: With Deb Olin Unferth at BookPeople, Sat. 9/27 at 4 p.m.
Seattle: With Katie Campbell at Third Place Books, Mon. 9/29 at 7 p.m.
Portland: With Jeff VanderMeer at Powell’s, Tues. 9/30 at 7 p.m.