This week in New York spend your Valentine’s Day at Six-Word Story Slam on Love & Heartbreak or hearing dark and twisted love stories at Housing Works; Michael Cunningham, Mary Gaitskill, Zadie Smith, and others get together to talk retreats for writers; Patti Smith at the 92nd Street Y; Patricia Spears-Jones at the Harold Clurman Poetry Reading Series; New York Writers Coalition Black History Month Reading at Greenlight; and actor Geoffrey Rush and director Neil Armfield at BAM.
MONDAY 2/14: Spend your Valentine’s Day listening to short stories about love at the “Six-Word Story Slam on Love & Heartbreak.” The line-up includes Deborah Copaken Kogan, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Baratunde Thurston, Darin Strauss, Rachel Sklar, Michele Carlo, Sara Barron, Kimberly Kaye, and Michael Hearst. 92YTribeca. 7 p.m. $10 in advance, $12 at the door.
For those of you not into the lovey-dovey side of Valentine’s Day, go to “A Dark and Twisted Valentine’s Day with Mischief + Mayhem.” Max Blagg, Lisa Dierbeck, Marian Fontana, Ben Greenman, Dale Peck, and Hannah Tinti will read tales from the ugly side of love. Housing Works Bookstore Café. 7 p.m.
TUESDAY 2/15: Writers Michael Cunningham, Mary Gaitskill, Andrew Sean Greer, Gary Shteyngart, Zadie Smith, Colm Tóibín, and Edmund White, will discuss their experiences at the Gregor von Rezzori and Beatrice Monti della Corte Retreat for Writers located in the Tuscan countryside. The Center for Fiction. 7:30 p.m. $12.
WEDNESDAY 2/16: Patti Smith talks about her memoir Just Kids and sings some of her songs. 92nd Street Y. 8 p.m. $29.
THURSDAY 2/17: Poet Patricia Spears-Jones launches her new book Painkiller at the Harold Clurman Poetry Reading Series. The Stella Adler Studios. 7 p.m. Free.
Cartoonist Tim Kreider will present a slideshow, talk and Q&A about his latest collection, Twilight of the Assholes. Strand Bookstore. 7 p.m. Free.
FRIDAY 2/18: Cave Canem presents a reading and conversation with co-founder Cornelius Eady and fellow Jacqueline Jones LaMon, to celebrate the release of her latest book, Last Seen. Moderated by Camille Rankine. Cave Canem Foundation. 6:30 p.m. $5-10 donation.
New York Writers Coalition presents its Black History Month reading featuring Tiphanie Yanique, author of How to Escape From a Leper Colony, and NYWC workshop participants. Greenlight Bookstore. 7:30 p.m. Free.
SATURDAY 2/19: Activist, artist, and writer Ashley Jones presents “Notes on the Emptying of a City,” a performance that brings together still images, video, and narration to discuss New Orleans in the months after Hurricane Katrina. New Museum Theater. 3 p.m. $10 members, $12 general public.
SUNDAY 2/20: Director Neil Armfield and actor Geoffrey Rush will discuss their adaptation of The Diary of a Madman, now playing at BAM. Moderated by Caro Llewellyn, former director of the PEN World Voices festival. BAM Harvey Theater. 6 p.m. $15, $7.50 for Friends of BAM.
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