Saturday 1/11: Wayne Koestenbaum and Olivia Laing discuss famous creative people. Laing’s The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking (December 2013) explores several writers and their relationship to alcohol. Koestenbaum’s essay collection My 1980s (August 2013) examines various cultural icons. Community Bookstore, 4 p.m., free.
Hanif Abdurraqib, Krystal Languell, and Danniel Schoonebeek read poetry as part of the Banquet Reading Series along with Special America, an ongoing collaborative digital performance by Claire Donato and Jeff T. Johnson. Abdurraqib’s second poetry collection Sons of Noah is forthcoming from Tire Hearts Press. Languell is a Belladonna Collective board member. Schoonebeek’s first collection, American Barricade is forthcoming from YesYes Books. Pine Box Rock Shop, 7 p.m., free.
Sunday 1/12: Joe Nelms and John McCaffrey join the Sunday Night Fiction reading series. Nelms’s The Last Time I Died (January 18, 2014) follows protagonist Christian Franco as he attempts to kill himself. KGB, 9 p.m., free.
Jacob M. Appel, B.C. Edwards, and Paula Bomer celebrate books from Black Lawrence Press. Appel’s Scouting for the Reaper is a collection of stories with characters facing quirky challenges. Le Poisson Rouge, 7 p.m., free.
Monday 1/13: Amina Cain, Anna Moschovakis, and Christine Schwartz Hartley read stories. Cain’s Creature (November 2013) set stories in a space between action and reflection. Moschovakis and Schwartz Hartley translated Marcelle Sauvageot’s Commentary from the French. Unnameable Books, 7 p.m., free.
Ben Marcus, Chinelo Okparanta, Luke G. Goebel, Ann DeWitt, and Ryan Chang join the Franklin Park Reading Series. Franklin Park, 8 p.m., free.
Tuesday 1/14: E.L. Doctorow reads from his new novel Andrew’s Brain, with an introduction by Kevin Baker. 92Y – Buttenwieser Hall, 8:15 p.m., $27.
John Keene and Vincent Czyz inaugurate WORD’s Jersey City poetry series. Czyz is a graduate of the Rutgers-Newark MFA program and author of collection of interwoven short stories, Adrift in a Vanishing City (1998). Keene is a member of the Dark Room Collective. WORD Jersey City, 7:30 p.m., free.
James Magnuson reads his new novel Famous Writers I Have Known. B&N 82nd Street, 7 p.m., free.
Wednesday 1/15: Rachel Cantor launches her debut novel A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee’s Guide to Saving the World, with Hannah Tinti. A Highly Unlikely Scenario is set in a near future controlled by fast-food chains. Tinti is editor of One Story and author of the novel The Good Thief (2008). Greenlight Bookstore, 7:30 p.m., free.
Alexandra Elle reads from her debut collection of poetry, Words from a Wanderer. Powerhouse Arena, 7 p.m., free.
Peter Longofono, Victoria Cho, Jennilie Brewster, Stephen Green, and Becca Worby join the Renegade Reading Series. Cookies will be served. LaunchPad, 8 p.m., free.
Thursday 1/16: Adam Sternbergh reads from his debut novel Shovel Ready. Set in near-future New York where class divides continue to separate the wealthiest residents, a former garbage man turns hitman. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free.
Carla Blumenkranz, Elif Batuman, Kristin Dombek, Emily Gould, Elizabeth Gumport, Amanda Katz, Sara Marcus, Sarah Resnick, Namara Smith, and Emily Witt launch No Regrets, a pamphlet from n+1 focused on books to read as a twenty-something. McNally Jackson, 7 p.m., free.
Joseph Tirella talks about the future and reads from his new book Tomorrow-Land: The 1964–65 World’s Fair and the Transformation of America. Astoria Bookshop, 7 p.m., free.
Paul Auster discusses Edgar Allen Poe with Isaac Gewirtz. The Morgan Library, 7 p.m., $25.
Friday 1/17: Nick Turse reads from his history Kill Anything that Moves, a look at the ordinary horrors of the Vietnam War. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free.
