Saturday 2/1: Chris Hosea writes customized poetry for visitors of Ugly Duckling Presse’s gallery event. Third Factory at Old American Can Factory, noon, free.
Chris Nealon and Catherine Wagner read poetry as part of the Segue Reading Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5.
Sunday 2/2: Robert Seidman celebrates James Joyce’s 132nd birthday. Seidman is co-author of Ulysses Annotated. McNally Jackson Books, 4 p.m., free.
Monday 2/3: Claire Messud and her editor Robin Desser discuss The Woman Upstairs (2013), the story of an elementary-school teacher who gave up her dreams. Powerhouse Arena, 7 p.m., free.
Hilton Als and Carla Kaplan have a conversation about white women. Kaplan’s Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance (2013) examines the white women involved in the Harlem Renaissance. Als’s White Girls (2013) provides a complex, cross-genre look at race and culture through people Als dubs ‘white girls.’ New York Public Library, 7 p.m., free.
Tuesday 2/4: Rob Fitterman, Josef Kaplan, and Mike Taylor celebrate the release of their new collections from Ugly Duckling Presse. Fitterman explores the boundary between personal and collective speech in No, Wait. Yep. Definitely Still Hate Myself. Kaplan’s All Nightmare amalgamates the introductions he wrote for the Segue Reading Series where he served as curator. Taylor’s not knowing is a mixed media play.
Pierogi Gallery, 7 p.m., free.
Colm Toibin celebrates the paperback release of The Testament of Mary, his 2012 novel chronicling Mary’s life after the death of her son Jesus. 192 Books (Facebook), 7 p.m., free.
Paul Lisicky, Michelle Dean, and Sarah Perry join the Shelf LIfe reading series. Hullabaloo Books (Facebook), 7:30 p.m., free.
Len Vlahos launches The Scar Boys, a debut young adult novel tackling coming of age and recovery. WORD Brooklyn, 7 p.m., free.
Wednesday 2/5: Jason Porter talks with Colum McCann about Porter’s debut novel, Why Are You So Sad (January 2014), the story of a home furnishings assembly manual illustrator. McNally Jackson Books, 7 p.m., free.
Rebecca Mead is joined by Adelle Waldman for a discussion of My Life In Middlemarch (January 2014), Mead’s new novel about a young woman reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch (1871). Greenlight Bookstore, 7:30 p.m., free.
Magdalena Zyzak reads The Ballad of Barnabas Pierkiel (January 2014), a debut novel set in a pre-war Scalvusia, a fictional nation as backward as the real eastern bloc. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free.
B.J. Novak celebrates the release of his short story collection One More Thing. Issue 187 of One Story published Novak’s “A Good Problem to Have” and he has written for television shows The Office and The Mindy Project. Symphony Space, 7:30 p.m., $28.
Thursday 2/6: B.J. Novak crosses the Hudson River to read his story collection at WORD Bookstore. WORD Jersey City, 7:30 p.m., free.
Joyce Carol Oates reads from her new novel Carthage (Janaury 2014). If this event sounds familiar, it is because was rescheduled from January 22, following the polar vortex induced blizzard. Powerhouse Arena, 7 p.m., free.
Joshua Max Feldman reads his debut novel The Book of Jonah, a modern retelling of the biblical tale. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free.
Nathan Oates reads stories from his collection of stories The Empty House (December 2013) with Michael Farris Smith, author of the debut novel Rivers (2013). Community Bookstore, 7 p.m., free.
Cassandra Gillig, Nat Otting, Ryan Doyle May, and Kiely Sweat read poetry as part of the Atlas Review reading series. 61 Local (Facebook), 7 p.m., free.
Len Vlahos reads The Scar Boys. McNally Jackson Books, 7 p.m., free.
E.L. Doctorow reads Andrew’s Brain (2014). B&N Union Square, 7 p.m., in-store book purchase implicitly required.
Friday 2/7: Nancy Esposito, Britt Melewski, and Melisa Adamo celebrate Esposito’s poetry collection Lamentation with June Bug (2013). Mello Pages (Facebook), 8 p.m., free.
Rob Fitterman and Kim Rosenfield read poetry. Rosenfield’s USO: I’ll Be Seeing You is a collection that amalgamates identity politics with comedy. Berl’s Poetry Shop, 7 p.m., free.
Dolan Morgan, Alanna Bailey, Zachary White, Maribeth Theroux, Travis Kurowski, and Elliott batTzedek read at fifth anniversary of party of Armchair/shotgun. Greenlight Bookstore (Facebook), 7:30 p.m., free.
B.J. Novak reads a third time this week. B&N Union Square, 7 p.m., in-store book purchase implicitly required.
