News & Features » September 2013 » Brooklyn Book Festival Events Featuring Akashic Authors!

Brooklyn Book Festival Events Featuring Akashic Authors!

The Brooklyn Book Festival is almost here! You, thankfully, won’t have to wait too long before you can start celebrating at some of the festival’s Bookend events, part of the week-long celebration that leads up to the Festival on Sunday, September 22, at Brooklyn Borough Hall.

On Thursday, September 19th, join Robert Antoni (As Flies to Whatless Boys, Trinidad Noir), Montague Kobbé (The Night of the Rambler), Elsie Augustave (The Roving Tree), Oonya Kempadoo (Trinidad Noir), Barbara Jenkins, Diana Macalay, and Ifeona Fulani at MoCADA (80 Hanson Place) for an event presented by Akashic Books, MoCADA, Bocas Lit Fest, and the Caribbean Cultural Theatre. The event begins at 6:00pm, and is free to attend! There will also be free food generously provided by Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery and Grill, as well as free beer.

On Friday, September 20th, come out to Greenlight Bookstore (686 Fulton Street, at South Portland) for the Fourth Annual Brooklyn Indie Party! The party starts at 7:30pm, is free to attend, and will feature publishers, authors, and editors from A Public Space, Akashic Books, Archipelago Books, Armchair/Shotgun, Bazillion Points Books, Belladonna, BOMB Magazine, Electric Literature, Ig Publishing, Litmus Press, Melville House, One Story, Patasola Press, powerHouse Books, Stonecutter, Tin House Books, and Ugly Duckling Presse.

On Saturday, September 21st, Elsie Augustave (The Roving Tree) and Edwidge Danticat (Haiti Noir, Haiti Noir 2: The Classics) will appear together at FiveMyles gallery (558 St. Johns Place (btw. Franklin Ave. & Classon Ave.). This event will be presented by Haiti Cultural Exchange.

At the Brooklyn Book Festival proper on Sunday, September 22nd, stop by the Akashic Booth (#20) to say hello and take a look at what we’ll be selling! At 12:30pm, Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortés will be at the booth to sign copies of their #1 bestseller, Go the Fuck to Sleep, as well as Seriously, Just Go to Sleep (the G-rated version of the classic children’s book), and Ricardo Cortés’s own A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola.

The Brooklyn Book Festival will also feature panels by multiple Akashic authors, including Robert Antoni, Montague Kobbé, Jessica Hagedorn, Edwidge Danticat, Adam Mansbach, Jennifer Baumgardner, and Prodigy. See below for a full list of Brooklyn Book Festival panels featuring Akashic authors.

BOROUGH HALL COURTROOM (209 JORALEMON ST.)

1:00 P.M. Sin City: Every city has its secrets. Violence, crime and intrigue fill the streets of Harlem, Red Hook, Miami and beyond. K’wan Foye (Animal), Albert “Prodigy” Johnson (H.N.I.C.), Ivy Pochoda (Visitation Street), and Miasha (Sistah for Sale) discuss what makes urban areas so fascinating and, for their trapped characters, so hard to escape. Moderated by S.J. Rozan (Blood of the Lamb by Sam Cabot).

2:00 P.M. Creating Dangerously in a Dangerous World: How do different forms—fiction, reportage, memoir and essay—capture different realities, especially when the principal subject is the trauma of war and violence? Join three authors whose work explores horrific visions from a variety of angles: Edwidge Danticat (Claire of the Sea Light), Courtney Angela Brkic (The First Rule of Swimming) and Dinaw Mengestu (How to Read the Air). Moderated by Bhakti Shringarpure, editor of Warscapes.

4:00 P.M. The Ugly Duckling: Join three authors who tell the age old story of transformation. James McBride (The Good Lord Bird) tells the story of a young male slave who joins the abolition movement by passing as a girl. Meg Wolitzer (The Interestings) traces the unexpected changes that occur between childhood and adulthood. And Audrey Niffenegger (Raven Girl) takes transformation to a whole other level, in the form of a coming-of-age raven trapped in human form. Moderated by David L. Ulin.

5:00 P.M. Visitors and Intruders: Talented writers A.X. Ahmad (The Caretaker), Jessica Hagedorn (Manila Noir) and Robert Antoni (As Flies to Whatless Boys) remind us of the thin line between visitor, intruder, and citizen in these tales about immigration, lost homelands, and, always, the power of location. Moderated by Karolina Waclawiak (The Believer).

ST. FRANCIS AUDITORIUM

3:00 P.M. Real People, Imagined Stories: These novels are so fascinating that it’s easy to forget they’re based on the lives of very real historical figures. Amy Brill (The Movement of Stars), Colum McCann (TransAtlantic), and Montague Kobbé (The Night of the Rambler) examine the lesser-known stories of the first female astronomer, a fifteen-hour revolution in Anguilla, and three generations of Irish women overshadowed by their male counterparts. Moderated by Jeffrey Lependorf (CLMP).

ST. FRANCIS MCARDLE (180 Remsen Street)

11:00 A.M. Making the Books: Leading publishers and editors Jane Friedman (Open Road Integrated Media), Chris Jackson (Spiegel & Grau), and Dan Simon (Seven Stories Press) discuss how they find the books that make their worlds go around, and what it takes to keep one’s edge in 2013. Moderated by Jennifer Baumgardner, publisher of the Feminist Press.

ST. ANN & THE HOLY TRINITY CHURCH (157 Montague Street)

3:30 P.M. Idols, Gods, and Kings: Literary forces Teddy Wayne (The Love Song of Jonny Valentine), Tom Wolfe (Back to Blood) and Cristina García (King of Cuba) explore the concept of power with three very different casts: an eleven-year-old superstar’s road to fame; the varied, shady folks running an election in Miami; and a fictionalized Fidel Castro and his vengeful exile. Moderated by Greg Cowles (The New York Times).

5:00 P.M. Something to Hide: Writers Against the Surveillance State.  Recent leaks have revealed the breathtaking reach of the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance programs. Should writers and readers be concerned? Brooklyn Book Festival authors Edwidge Danticat, Francine Prose, Andre Aciman, and radio host Leonard Lopate join an NSA whistleblower, Tom Drake, and others for a reading to provoke reflection on the dangers surveillance poses to the freedom to think and create, and to celebrate the role writers have played in defying those dangers. Presented by PEN American Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the New York Civil Liberties Union).

BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY AUDITORIUM (128 Pierrepont Street)

2:00 P.M. The New American Dream:  What is today’s Great American Novel, anyway? Ayana Mathis (The Twelve Tribes of Hattie), Dash Shaw (New School), and Adam Mansbach (The Dead Run) give us glimpses into a new kind of American Dream: a fifteen-year-old mother of nine; a boy’s island adventures in graphic novel form; and in one case, an American nightmare. Moderated by David Unger.

BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL STUDENT LOUNGE (250 Joralemon St.)

12:00 P.M. Lessons Learned: We all like to think of what could have been. Christopher Beha (What Happened to Sophie Wilder), Paul Harding (Enon), and Robert Antoni (As Flies to Whatless Boys) discuss how their characters look to the past to find peace in the present, whether that means reconnecting with ex-lovers, facing the death of a loved one, or reflecting on decisions could have, should have, would have changed the world. Moderated by Erika Goldman.

Posted: Sep 9, 2013

Category: News | Tags: A Secret History of Coffee Coca & Cola, Abortion & Life, Adam Mansbach, Albert "Prodigy" Johnson, As Flies to Whatless Boys, Brooklyn Book Festival, Edwidge Danticat, Elsie Augustave, Go the Fuck to Sleep, H.N.I.C., Haiti Noir, Haiti Noir 2: The Classics, Jennifer Baumgardner, Jessica Hagedorn, Manila Noir, Montague Kobbé, Robert Antoni, Seriously Just Go To Sleep, The Night of the Rambler, The Roving Tree, Trinidad Noir, We Do!