Monday 05/20:
The Belladonna* Collective’s Hot Texts series continues with readings from Lauren Hunter, Samantha Zighelboim, Allison Power, and Christine Kanownik. The Way Station, 6:30pm, $5 suggested donation.
The Poetry Project hosts Ross Gay and Lauren Shufran. St. Mark’s Church, 8pm, free.
Tuesday 05/21:
Native Tongues is a storytelling series coming to New York that showcases the stories of American Muslims. The event, hosted by Cyrus McGoldrick, will feature stories from Khalid Latif (Chaplain at the Islamic Center at NYU), Musa Syeed (award winning filmmaker, Sundance Film Festival winner), Aman Ali (30 Mosques in 30 Days co-creator, Mario Kart prodigy), Nzinga Knight (fashion designer, NY Fashion Week), Commarrah Jewelia Bashar (actress/performer), and Nada Haq-Siddiqi (biomedical engineer, cat enthusiast). Housing Works Bookstore, 7pm, free.
Wednesday 05/22:
2010 Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Harding and novelist Ayana Mathis, both of whom made their mark with debut novels, come together for a discussion and reading. Strand Books, 7pm, free with book purchase.
Poet CA Conrad hosts A (Soma)tic Poetry Primer on Wednesday where he will use his book A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon: New (Soma)tics as an introduction to his (soma)tic poetry techniques, which he views as a way to “resist the urge to subdue our spirits and lose ourselves in the hypnotic beep of machines, of war, and the banal need for power, and things.” Poets House, 7pm, $10.
Poet and critic Stephen Burt takes part in the MoMA’s Guerilla Reading Series. MoMA, gallery 12, 12:30pm, free with museum admission.
Thursday 05/23:
The Greenlight website bills Joan Silber as a “writer’s writer,” which can be a dubious honor. I would maybe just say that everyone who has read Joan Silber seems to love her writing. Her new collection of interconnected stories, Fools, is getting lots of praise and you can get a little preview Thursday night when she reads excerpts from it and talks about the book with Stacey D’Erasmo. Greenlight Bookstore, 7:30pm, free.
Friday 05/24:
Both poets and novelists, Eileen Myles and Rebecca Woolf come together for a reading to start your Memorial Day weekend with some good literature and libations. KGB Bar, 7pm, free.