Saturday 4/12: Michael Parker and Ethan Hauser celebrate their new books with a reading, musical DJ Jim McHugh, and literary mingle. Wythe Hotel, 6 p.m., free.
Sunday 4/13: David Gerrard, Douglas Watson, and Jason Porter join the Sunday Night Fiction series. Gerrard’s Short Century (January 2014) centers around a mysterious blogger revealing a journalist’s incestuous affair. Why Are you So Sad (January 2014) is Porter’s debut novel following Raymond Champs, an illustrator of manuals for assembly-yourself-furniture. KGB, 7 p.m., free.
Jamie Burns hosts a silent-reading party. This no-talking event brings readers together in a quiet setting to read privately. Muchmore’s, 7 p.m., free.
McNally Jackson Books, Bowery Poetry Club, and Housing Works host the Downtown Literary Festival:
Teju Cole, Hari Kunzru, and Katie Kitamura discuss living in New York City as a non-native. Cole’s new novel, Every Day is for the Thief (March 2014), is about a Nigerian living in New York City visiting Lagos. Kunzru’s Gods Without Men (2012) tells the story of a four-year-old missing in the California desert and his parents’ shaming by the media before Raj is returned unharmed. Gone to the Forest (2012) is Kitamura’s novel set in an unnamed colonial country during a period of revolution. Bowery Poetry Club, 11 a.m., free.
Tobias Carroll of Vol. 1 Brooklyn hosts Sari Botton, Jenn Doll, Maggie Serota, Tyler Coates, and Bob Powers for 3-minute Bad Apartment stories. Housing Works, 12 noon, free.
Stephen Elliott, Saeed Jones, Trisha Low, Rosie Schaap, and Elissa Schappell talk about sin and salvation. Elliott is the founder of The Rumpus. Saeed Jones is an editor at Buzzfeed. Low’s The Complete Purge (2013) remixes social media culture in confessional feminist poetry. Bowery Poetry Club, 1 p.m., free.
Justin Taylor, Sadie Stein, and Adam Wilson offer author one-on-one events. Taylor’s Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever (2010) follows an assortment of characters struggling with modern world, experimenting wtih black magic, obsessing over Abu Ghraib, and playing Tetris. Sadie Stein edits the Paris Review Daily. Wilson’s new collection of short stories, What’s Important Is Feeling (February 2014), includes humorous tales of laid-off bankers roaming Williamsburg in search of hipster girls and using lobsters as sex toys. McNally Jackson, 2:30 / 3 / 4 p.m. respectively, free.
Charles Bock, Adam Fitzgerald, Heidi Julavits, Uzoamaka Maduka, Rachel Syrne, Colm Toibin, Edmund White, Lucas Whittmann, and Joshua Ferris present a look at literary culture after dark. Bowery Poetry Club, 4 p.m., free.
See the full listing of events.
Monday 4/14: George Saunders reads from Tenth of December (2013). St. Francis College, 3:30 p.m., free.
Dinaw Mengestu discusses All Our Names (March 2014) with Dina Nayeri, author of A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea (2013) BookCourt, 7 p.m., free.
Akhil Sharma reads from his new novel, Family Life, a semi-autobiographical account of Indian immigrants in Queens. He is joined by George Packer, author of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America (2013). Center for Fiction, 7 p.m., free.
Tuesday 4/15: Cathy Linh Che, Dan Chiasson, and Saskia Hamilton read poetry as presented by the Academy of American Poets. Chiasson’s collection Bicentennial (March 2014) explores boys and manhood. Hamilton’s collection Corridor is forthcoming in April. Berl’s Poetry Shop, 7 p.m., free.
Sean Madigan Hoen launches Songs Only You Know, his memoir, with Darin Strauss. Powerhouse Arena, 7 p.m., free.
Max Steele, Maud Deitch, Lauren Wilkinson, and Sean H. Doyle help launch a poetry app, absentMINDR. The app includes 24 poems and artwork. Mellow Pages Library, 7:30 p.m., free.
Cris Mazza, Lisa Marie Basile, Justin Miracle Jones, and Rae Bryant read as part of the Docto T.J. Eckleburg Review. KGB, 7 p.m., free.
Kristin Dombek, A.M. Glittlitz, Adam Dalva, m.t. Niagara, and Ed Winstead join the Animal Farm series for “Awaken Ye, Spring!” Over The Eight, 8 p.m., free.
Wednesday 4/16: Cara Hoffman and Lauren Wolfe discuss Hoffman’s new novel, Be Safe I love You (March 2014), a story of a returning war veteran. Greenlight Bookstore, 7:30 p.m., free.
Brenda Hillman and Evelyn Reilly read poetry. Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire (2013) is the fourth collection in Hillman’s series on elements. Reilly’s Apocalypso (2012) explores belief and uncovered loss. Berl’s Poetry Shop, 7 p.m., free.
Thursday 4/17: Joyce Carol Oates discusses crime fiction. Carthage (2014) is the story of a young girl’s disappearance and its aftermath on the community. Center for Fiction, 7 p.m., free with RSVP, private event to follow.
Lydia Davis has a conversation with Jean Echenoz about Davis’s new collection of stories Can’t and Won’t (April 2014). 92Y, 8:15 p.m., $22.
Brandon Brown, Andrew Kenower, Sara Wintz, and Amelia Bentley launch the Brooklyn Poetry Summit at the opening reception. Molasses Books, 7 p.m., free.
Leslie Jamison and Ted Thompson join Pete’s Reading Series. Thompson’s debut novel The Land of Steady Habits (March 2014) follows Protagonist Anders Hill as he seeks the reconciliation of his past and present in a stuffy Connecticut hamlet. Pete’s Candy Store, 7:30 p.m., free.
Friday 4/18: Sam Lohman, Tyrone Williams, Erica Kaufman, and Roberto Harrison read at the Brooklyn Poetry Summit. Unnameable Books, 7 p.m., free.
Frank Sherlock, Anne Boyer, James Yeary, and Tanya Olson read at part two of the Brooklyn Poetry Summit. Old American Can Factory / Ugly Duckling Presse, 10 p.m., free.
