Each week, Literary Arts staff will round up news, events, and more happening in the literary community. Let us know if you have any events or book news to share.
FEATURED EVENT
Marilynne Robinson: Jack
Friday, October 2 | 4:00–6:00 p.m.
Presented by the Wisconsin Book Festival in partnership with The Believer Festival, Literary Arts, and The Loft’s Wordplay. Marilynne Robinson will appear live on Crowdcast, in conversation with novelist C Pam Zhang.
UPCOMING EVENTS
| Books Noted Live (Academy of American Poets) Friday, September 25 | 7:00 p.m. EDT A Reading and Conversation with Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, author of The Age of Phillis, and Tyree Daye, author of Cardinal. |
The Arlington Author Salon: Women Who Flip the Script
Thursday, October 1, 4:30–6:00 p.m.
Featuring three authors who flip the script in different ways: Allison Adair, The Clearing; Nina MacLaughlin, Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung; and professor of postcolonial literature, Rani Neutill.
A Reading with Coleman Stevenson, Shayla Lawson, Stephanie Adams-Santos (Daedalus Books)
Sunday, October 11, 4:00 p.m.
Free | Register here
A virtual reading with Delve Guides and Oregon Literary Fellowship recipients Coleman Stevenson, Shayla Lawson, and Stephanie Adams-Santos.
Know Sci-Fi &Fantasy: Virtual Think & Drink with Walidah Imarisha (Deschutes Public Library)
Monday, October 19, 2020 | 6:00–7:00 p.m.
Writer and educator Walidah Imarisha will explore the idea of “visionary fiction,” fantastical art that aids in imagining and building new just futures. She will do so engaging with the work of Octavia E. Butler, renowned Black feminist science fiction writer and public intellectual. Connecting science fiction to social change, Imarisha will show the necessity of imagination to change the world.
Electric Literature’s First Ever Virtual Salon Series
October 20–29
$10 | Register here
Authors Brandon Taylor and Ross Feeler will discuss Writing White Fragility; Halimah Marcus, Marie-Helene Bertino, and Elissa Washuta on Magical Feminism; and Swords Out: A Dungeons & Dragons Murder Mystery with John Darnielle, Leah Johnson, Daniel Lavery, Amber Sparks, R. Eric Thomas, and Dungeon Master Matt Lubchansky.
Grub Street’s SUBMITATHON!
Friday, September 25
6:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Online via Zoom | Free (registration required)
GrubStreet is once again partnering with UMass Boston MFA Program’s Jill McDonough for SUBMITATHON!—an evening of submitting work in any genre, talking about submitting work, thinking about where to publish your work, answering your questions about submitting work, and then submitting more of your own work. Feel free to have a dinner, a drink, or both during the session!
Virtual Festivals
AJC Decatur Book Festival presented by Emory University 2020
September 4 – October 4
Brooklyn Book Festival
September 28 – October 5
Fall into the Arts: A Radio Festival of Local Performances (All Classical Portland)
This nine-part concert broadcast series will air on Thursdays at 7pm PT, September 24 through November 19, in Portland at 89.9FM and streaming worldwide at allclassical.org.
Library of Congress National Book Festival
September 25-27
Litquake 2020 (San Francisco’s Literary Festival)
October 8–24
Lit Crawl Austin Goes Virtual
October 31–November 15
Lineup to be announced soon!
RESOURCES FOR WRITERS
The Black Poetry Review Discovery Prize
Accepting Submissions: June 19–September 31
Submit 1-3 poems and your bio to blackpoetryreview@gmail.com. No submission fee. The prize is specifically for poets from the Black diaspora. Prize: Publication, mentorship, and a gift worth $400 from GrubStreet.
FOR KIDS/ TEENS
Teen Author Q&A and Writing Workshop with Aiden Thomas
Tuesday, September 29, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Join Aiden Thomas, author of Cemetery Boys, for a Q&A and scary story writing workshop.
Cemetery Boys is a Dia de Muertos paranormal romance about Yadriel (a gay, trans brujo) who accidentally summons the wrong ghost.
For teens.
Online event; registration required.
A Song Below Water, by Bethany C. Morrow (Reading is Resistance)
Guided anti-bias/ anti-racist reading, for Grades 4+
What We’re Reading
The Uses and Abuses of Narrative by Angela Chen (Powell’s Books Blog)
“I still believe that narratives are easy to mutate and misinterpret, and that narrative is an insidious form of magic, a tool not always used for good. The difference now is that I see that narrative is all there is.”
Fire Season: Two Poems, by Patrick Coleman
Patrick Coleman, author of The Churchgoer, reads two poems from his debut poetry collection, Fire Season.
FILM
Noche de Película
Stream-at-home Film Festival (Hollywood Theater)
September 30–October 5
$12 | Tickets
Every year, Noche de Película brings Latinx queer stories from around the world in Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French. This year the program will highlight experiences of Hispanic, Latin-American, and Afro-Caribbean LGBTQIA+ persons with films from ten countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Los Estados Unidos, Mexico, Peru, Reino Unido, and Venezuela.
