with Emily Raboteau and Brian Gresko, hosted by Catherine LaSota.

I am thrilled to collaborate with Caroline McAuliffe on this event! The artist behind “Pink Hair,” which she generously let me use on the cover of CHOOSE THIS NOW, Caroline will share about her work and facilitate a playful workshop atmosphere. We’ll talk about our collaboration for CHOOSE THIS NOW, share some new work, and invite audience participation and conversation. We’ll be at the wonderful Bay Ridge gallery Stand4 and books will be available for purchase at local Bay Ridge bookshop, Bookmark Shoppe.

with Vinson Cunningham, Cebo Campbell, Tyler Wetherall, and Amelia Possanza.

This “Storytime” for Parents and Caregivers is going to have it all! Me reading a Halloween selection from CHOOSE THIS NOW! Ananda Lima reading on Halloween from CRAFT and, I hope, from one or two of my favorite of her parenting poems, too! BABIES IN HALLOWEEN COSTUMES! That’s right. Please come to our adult storytime, where the readings and conversation will be for you, but no one cares if you baby pukes. Although please dress them up in their Halloween costume—maybe you don’t want puke on that.

Usually, I moderate the conversations at these storytimes at Astoria Bookshop, but I am going to sneak in my own reading at this one because…Halloween. And because the reading is ON MY BIRTHDAY.

With Amy Stuber, Ananda Lima, Shannon Robinson, Janelle Bassett, and Nick Rees Gardner. Register here!

Books Are Magic invites you for an evening of celebrating the art of the short story, with some of the genre's newest, freshest, and funkiest voices.

Whether you're a short fiction enthusiast, a reader just dipping their toe into the ocean of story collections, or an avid short story hater, we promise there's something in this line-up of writers for everyone! Magical realism, dark humor, folklore and mythology, dreams and nightmares—you never know where the next page will bring!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/offsite-an-evening-of-short-stories-tickets-970940598467?aff=oddtdtcreator

Vincent Anioke is a Nigerian-Canadian writer and software engineer. His short stories have appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Rumpus, The Masters Review, and Passages North, among others. He won the 2021 Austin Clarke Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the 2023 RBC Bronwen Wallace Fiction Award and the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Perfect Little Angels is his debut story collection.

Janelle Bassett is the author of the story collection Thanks for This Riot, winner of the Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize in Fiction. She edits fiction for Split Lip Magazines and lives in St. Louis.

Gina Chung is a Korean American writer from New Jersey currently living in New York City. She is the author of the short story collection Green Frog, which was a Good Morning America Book Buzz Pick, and the novel Sea Change, which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a 2023 B&N Discover Pick, an APALA Adult Fiction Honor Book, and a New York Times Most Anticipated Book. A recipient of the Pushcart Prize, she is a 2021-2022 Center for Fiction/Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School.

Nicole Haroutunian (she/her) is the author of the novel-in-stories Choose This Now (Noemi Press, 2024) and the story collection Speed Dreaming (Little a, 2015). Her fiction has appeared most recently in The Georgia Review and Story. She works in museum education, holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and lives with her family in Woodside, Queens.

Ananda Lima is the author of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil (Tor Books) and Mother/land (Black Lawrence Press), winner of the Hudson Prize. Her work has appeared in four chapbooks, including Amblyopia (Bull City Press), and publications such as The American Poetry Review, Poets.org, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, Witness, and elsewhere. She has served as a mentor at the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Program and currently serves as a Program Curator at StoryStudio Chicago and a Contributing Editor at Poets & Writers. She has an MA in Linguistics from UCLA and an MFA in Creative Writing in Fiction from Rutgers University, Newark. Craft, her fiction debut, has received starred reviews from Kirkus Review, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal, which described it as “one of the most original and unforgettable reads of the year.” Originally from Brazil, she lives in Chicago.

Shannon Robinson is author of The Ill-Fitting Skin, winner of the Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. Her writing has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, Joyland, The Hopkins Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in fiction from Washington University in St. Louis, and in 2011 she was the Writer-in-Residence at Interlochen Center for the Arts. Other honors include Nimrod's Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts, a Hedgebrook Fellowship, a Sewanee Scholarship, and an Independent Artist Award from the Maryland Arts Council. She teaches creative writing at Johns Hopkins University.

Amy Stuber is the author of the short story collection, Sad Grownups (Stillhouse Press, 2024). Her writing has appeared in New England Review, Ploughshares, Copper Nickel, American Short Fiction, Best Small Fictions, Flash Fiction America, and elsewhere. She’s the recipient of the 2023 William Peden Prize from the Missouri Review and the 2021 Fiction Prize from the Northwest Review. She holds a PhD in English, works in ed tech, and serves as an editor for Split Lip Magazine.

Lena Valencia is the author of the short story collection Mystery Lights (Tin House, August 2024). Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in BOMB, Electric Literature, Ninth Letter, Epiphany, the anthology Tiny Nightmares, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2019 Elizabeth George Foundation grant and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she is the managing editor and director of educational programming at One Story and the co-host of the reading series Ditmas Lit. Find out more at lenavalencia.com

A Brooklyn Book Festival Bookends event, featuring Liana Finck, Helen Phillips, Nicole Haroutunian, LaToya Jordan, and Amy Shearn. Click the image to RSVP!

It's no secret that storytime isn't actually for babies—it's for the caregivers who want to get out of the house and have a little adult interaction! Babies may need to see faces and hear words, but they won't know if those words actually are meant to entertain their grown ups. At this event, author Nicole Haroutunian will read from her novel, Choose This Now, which takes on pregnancy, the newborn phase, and toddlerhood. Come to hear a reading geared to your adult brain, in the company of folks who won't care if your baby needs a diaper change in the middle of it, and stay for conversation, commiseration, and camaraderie. Nicole Haroutunian is the author of the novel-in-stories, Choose This Now (Noemi Press, 2024) and the short story collection Speed Dreaming. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Story, the Georgia Review, the Rumpus, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. Originally from Montvale, New Jersey, she lives with her family in Woodside, Queens.

Did you go to Vassar College? Come hang out with us and talk about the book on zoom. Register here!

A reading series in Chicago! Looking forward to reading with Allison Joseph, Ananda Lima, and Colin Pope.

I’m thrilled to return to Katonah Reading Room for a morning reading geared toward parents and caretakers of new babies. I’ll read from my book and the audience will get to meet and mingle with other new parents!

Join Apryl Lee and me as we reboot our reading series, Halfway There, for one night only! We’ll be setting up with drinks, snacks, and conversation at our old stomping grounds, the Red Eye Cafe in Montclair, New Jersey to celebrate our latest collaboration! Apryl, a writer and voice actor, read and produced the audiobook of Choose This Now. Can’t wait to see you there!

THIS EVENT IS CANCELED!

My friend Amy Shearn is publishing a witty, weird, and wild novel called DEAR EDNA SLOANE (Red Hen Press). We are going to read together with other small press writers LaToya Jordan (To the Woman in the Pink Hat, Aqueduct Press), Carley Moore (Panpocolypse, Feminist Press), and Megan Milks (Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body, Feminist Press).

Astoria Bookshop says:

Join us for a special daytime book event with local author Nicole Haroutunian and meet other caregivers navigating the early days of life with a baby.
Note: This event will be held on our patio, weather permitting.

Nicole will read two selections: First, from her new novel-in-stories Choose This Now, and second, from a classic board book. In between readings you'll have time to chat and mingle with other caregivers navigating the early days of baby life. You are welcome and encouraged to bring Baby along (we have a changing table!) 

Sign up here!

I’m looking forward to reading in Queens with Aida Zilelian, Mary Lannon, Emily Hockaday, and Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

I’ll be in conversation with Helen Georgas for Brown Bag Lit, the wonderful virtual series by Chloe Yelena Miller and Shasta Grant.

This event is at traditional storytime-time, but it is for the adult brains of the babies caregivers! I’m excited to be joined by Recess Collective, who work to reduce isolation in new parents, and the incredible Kaitlin Solimine, an author and the host of the podcast Postpartum Productions.

I am so excited to read with Minna Dubin, Ella Mei Yon Harris, and Amanda Montei at Clio’s in Oakland. More details to come!

I’m looking forward to visiting the museum education program at Teachers College, where I’ll be in conversation with professor and museum educator extraordinaire, EY Zipris.

I’m looking forward to this afternoon reading at the Katonah Reading Room with some of my favorite writers, Carolyn Ferrell, Jared Harél, and Iain Haley Pollock. More info to come!

I couldn’t be more excited to join my friend and fellow Vassar alum Alexis Neider at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College to discuss our collaborations and “careers in the arts” since we met in a painting class twenty-two years ago. This program is open to the public.

I look forward to reading at Mary Lannon’s series with the incredible Jenn Baker and Bruce Whitacre.

On the occasion of the publication of Senior Educator Nicole Haroutunian’s novel-in-stories, Choose This Now, she’ll be joined by current and former American Folk Art Museum educators Claudia Maturell, Natalie Beall, and Sally Paul to share the intersections between their artistic practices, their work at the museum, and the museum’s collection. ON ZOOM. Register by emailing education@folkartmuseum.org for the link!

I’m thrilled to be reading with three Nyack-area writers who helped shape and shepherd my book into the world: Bethany Ball, Jocelyn Cox, and Sara Weiss. More info to come!

I look forward to returning to Sarah Lawrence College for this program, where I’ll read with Vanessa Lawrence, author of Ellipses, and Carolyn Ferrell, author of Dear Miss Metropolitan. Open to the public.

Join me and the incredible Ananda Lima (Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil and Mother/land) at P&T Knitwear to celebrate the launch of Choose This Now! Reserve your tickets—$5 goes toward a purchase of the book or a drink!

So very excited to soft launch CHOOSE THIS NOW with a brief reading at this awesome small press extravaganza.

I am thrilled to take part in dear friend KC Trommer's project, Queensbound, in which writers will read their Queens-subway stop-specific work aboard the 7 train before exiting to a reception at the Queens Museum. Stay tuned for a website that will geolocate the poems and stories, as well as more about the event. See you in the first train car or the 7 train! More info here.