The Greenlight Tote Bag and You!

Sometimes dreams do come true.

This time, the dream is a tote bag with the logo of your favorite Fort Greene independent bookstore emblazoned upon it.

Yes! At long last, we've created a Greenlight Bookstore totebag, just in time for our one year anniversary! The totes are long-handled and made of recycled cotton, and feature the Greenlight logo on one side and the iconic "g" on the other.

When can I get my hands on a tote bag, you ask?

The answer: this Saturday, October 16, as Greenlight Bookstore turns one year old!

The tote bags will retail for $9.95. But as an added incentive for making a birthday purchase at Greenlight Bookstore on Saturday:

If you spend $100 at Greenlight on October 16, you can get a totebag for free!

So join us on October 16 for your first shot at the new Greenlight totes. We're hosting a party for kids and families at 10:30 AM with cake and balloons, and a more grown-up event at 7:30 PM with champagne and toasts from authors and neighbors. The totes -- and the spend $100, get one free offer -- are available all day long.

It's yet another reason to join us on October 16, and another way to show your Greenlight pride on the streets of the city. See you on Saturday when the dream comes true!

Tonight: Julia Glass!

Wednesday, October 13, 7:30 PM

Julia Glass reads from The Widower's Tale

Julia Glass is the author of the National Book Award winning novel Three Junes, and her fiction explores familial and romantic relationships with a compassionate and lyrical sensibility. Her new novel The Widower's Tale brings to life a complacently prosperous world where no one is immune to unexpected change, and once again plumbs the human heart brilliantsly and movingly.

RSVP on Facebook (optional)

Tonight: William "Upski" Wimsatt!

Monday, October 11, 7:30 PM
William Upski Wimsatt presents Please Don’t Bomb the Suburbs

As a potty-mouthed graffiti writer from the Southside of Chicago, William "Upski" Wimsatt electrified the literary and hip-hop world with two of the most successful underground classic books in a generation, Bomb the Suburbs (1994) and No More Prisons (1999), which combined sold more than 90,000 copies. In his new book Please Don’t Bomb the Suburbs, Wimsatt weaves a first-person tour of America's cultural and political movements from 1985 to 2010 – a story about love, growing up, a generation coming of age, and a vision for the movement young people will create in the new decade.

RSVP on Facebook (optional)

Tonight: BOMB All-Stars Literary Reading!

Wednesday, October 6, 7:30 PM

BOMB All-Stars Literary Reading

With readings by contributors Barbara Browning, Christian hawkey, and Kim Rosenfield

Introduction by BOMB editors

Launched in 1981, BOMB Magazine publishes interviews between artists, writers, actors, directors, and musicians, as well as a literary supplement called First Proof that publishes fiction, poetry, and original artwork. As Fort Greene neighbors to this unique literary magazine, Greenlight Bookstore is proud to host BOMB's fall launch event. Fiction writer Barbara Browning and poets Christian Hawkey and Kim Rosenfield will be on hand to read from their recent pieces and to celerate the magazine's cultural contributions.

RSVP on Facebook (optional)

Tonight: Kurt Andersen introduces Frederic Tuten!

Wednesday, September 30, 7:30 PM
Frederic Tuten reads from Self Portraits: Fictions
Introduction by Kurt Andersen

Acclaimed New York author Frederic Tuten, recipient of both a Guggenheim fellowship and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Distinguished Writing, bends genres and breaks boundaries in his new book Self Portraits: Fictions, which is at once a memoir, short stories, and a novel. These mysterious, interrelated stories create a portrait of the author’s life, both real and imagined, as he appears in each tale variously as hero, bystander, artist, and ghost, yielding an enchanting autobiography of the imagination. Tuten will be introduced by friend and fellow author Kurt Andersen, host of WNYC’s Studio 360.

RSVP on Facebook (optional)

Last Chance: Get your tickets to see Mo Willems at the Brooklyn Public Library!

Mo Willems kicks off the Knuffle Bunny Free World Tour in Brooklyn, where it all started!

Long-time Brooklynite Mo Willems will be back in town to celebrate the release of Knuffle Bunny Free, the final book in his critically-acclaimed Knuffle Bunny series. WORD and Greenlight Bookstore are proud to be co-hosting him for a spectacular evening of reading, discussion, and activities.

Mo and a special surprise traveling companion (just the right size for young ones to hug!) will visit, and Mo will read a selection of his books, including Knuffle Bunny Free.

This event will take place on Wednesday, September 29th at 6pm at the Brooklyn Public Library, Central Branch. Each store will have a limited supply of tickets available to our customers. Tickets are free with the purchase of Knuffle Bunny Free and each ticket admits one adult and one child. Activities and giveaways hosted by HarperCollins are included, and other Mo Willems titles will be available for purchase the night of the event. Mo will be signing books after his reading.

Tickets can be purchased from Greenlight Bookstore over the phone or in person, while supplies last. There will be no paper tickets issued; all attendees will be on a list and will need to show photo ID at the event. We do still have a handful of tickets, so call or visit us today to reserve your seat!

All ticketholders please visit gomo.net prior to the event to download your very own passport and travel checklist. Don't forget to bring them to the event. See you at the library with Mo and Knuffle Bunny!

Tonight: Poets Megan Synder-Camp and Darcie Dennigan!

Monday, September 27, 7:30 PM
Megan Snyder-Camp, author of The Forest of Sure Things
Darcie Dennigan, author of Corinna A-Maying the Apocalypse

Two talented poets and friends present award-winning new collections!

Megan Snyder-Camp’s The Forest of Sure Things is a layered sequence of narrative poems chronicling the story of newlywed drifters in a remote village on the Northwest Coast; hypnotic, incantatory and chronologically innovative, the collection won the annual Tupelo Press First Book Award, and was a finalist for the Yale Younger Poets Prize.


Darcie Dennigan is one of four recipients of the Discovery/The Nation Poetry Prize and was selected for the Fordham Poets Out Loud program; her book Corinna A-Maying the Apocalypse has been widely and extravagantly praised for its innovative rhythms and observant lyricism.

RSVP on Facebook (optional)

Tonight: Steamboat Special Edition!

Thursday, September 23, 7:30 PM Steamboat Special Edition!
With hosts Bob Powers, Jason Reich, and Scott Jacobson Presenting Sex: Our Bodies, Our Junk, authored by The Association for the Betterment of Sex (Mike Sacks, Scott Jacobson, Todd Levin, Ted Travelstead, Jason Roeder)
Michael Kupperman, author of Tales Designed To Thrizzle series
Allison Silverman, former executive producer of "The Colbert Report"
Jessi Klein, stand-up and star of Comedy Central's "Michael And Michael Have Issues"

Steamboat: A Literary Comedy Series typically occurs on the third Thursday of every month, with hosts Bob Powers and Jason Reich and the city's best humor writers in a night of wine-addled text-based hilarity.

For this special edition of Steamboat, series founder Scott Jacobson returns to Brooklyn from Los Angeles to co-host the show and present his new book, Sex: Our Bodies, Out Junk. Fellow members of the “Association for the Betterment of Sex”, as well as comic writers and performers Michael Kupperman, Allison Silverman and Jessi Klein, will round out the raucous evening.
Note: this edition of Steamboat is not kid-friendly – adults only please!

RSVP on Facebook (optional)

Tonight: Josh Neufeld discusses A.D. with Calvin Reid!

Monday, September 20, 7:30 AM
Josh Neufeld, author of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
Slide show and discussion with Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly

Now in paperback, Josh Neufeld's bestselling, award-winning nonfiction graphic novel A. D.: New Orleans After the Deluge is a portrait of a city under siege, depicting the lives of seven New Orleanians before, during, and just after Hurricane Katrina. This evening, Josh presents a slideshow presentation including the influences and motivations behind the book, the real people who inspired it, and a moving silent-movie-style portion of the book itself. Afterward, Josh will discuss the project and how the book has been received with Calvin Reid, Publishers Weekly senior news editor & coeditor of PW Comics Week.

RSVP on Facebook (optional)

Tonight: Colette Brooks talks science with Alan McGowan

Thursday, September 16, 7:30 PM
Colette Brooks, author of Lost In Wonder: Imagining Science and Other Mysteries In conversation with Alan McGowan, professor of science at Eugene Lang

Author and journalist Colette Brooks (author of In the City: Random Acts of Awareness) invests contemporary science with all the emotional and imaginative power of a work of fiction in her new book Lost in Wonder. Serving as a tour guide through five centuries of scientific exploration, Brooks guides the reader through “thought experiments” to recreate the moment of invention or discovery, bringing her unique perspective to the larger cultural conversation about science and unleashing the most powerful force of all: our own wonder. Brooks talks about science and wonder at Greenlight with Alan McGowan, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Science at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts; McGowan is the executive editor of Environment magazine and has written extensively on science policy and public understanding of science issues.

RSVP on Facebook (optional)

Tonight: The Brooklyn Indie Party!

Friday, September 10, 7:30 PM
Brooklyn Book Festival Bookends Event:
The Brooklyn Indie Party!
Featuring A Public Space, Akashic Books, Archipelago, Armchair/Shotgun, BOMB Magazine, Electric Literature, Hanging Loose Press, Ig Publishing, Melville House, One Story, powerHouse Books, and Tin House
With guest DJs Johnny Temple and Dave Tompkins

The Brooklyn Book Festival has become one of the premier literary festivals in the country, featuring authors and publishers from within the borough and around the world. Greenlight is proud to be a vendor at this year’s BKBF, and to participate in the Bookends project: a series of events before and after the Festival to extend the celebration of all things literary throughout the borough. On Friday night, Greenlight will partner with some of Brooklyn’s best independent book and magazine publishers to throw a Brooklyn-sized kickoff party celebrating the spirit of literary independence in Brooklyn! Food and drinks will be provided, along with music courtesy of guest DJs Johnny Temple (publisher of Akashic Books and bassist for Girls Vs. Boys), and Dave Tompkins, author of How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop.

RSVP on Facebook (optional)

Tonight: Rahna Reiko Rizzuto!

Wednesday, September 8, 7:30
PM Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, author of Hiroshima in the Morning
In conversation with Kathryn Cullen-Dupont of Pratt Institute

In June 2001, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto went to Hiroshima to interview survivors of the atomic bomb detonation, in search of a deeper understanding of her war-torn heritage. Then the attacks on September 11 changed everything. The survivors’ carefully constructed memories were shattered, causing them to relive their agonizing experiences and to open up to Rizzuto in astonishing ways. Rizzuto’s narrative of the survivors’ stories is intertwined with the story of her own crumbling marriage and ambivalence about being a wife and mother, and the parallel narratives explore the role of memory in all our lives. Rizzuto talks about these themes this evening with her friend and former student Kathryn Cullen-Dupont, an associate adjunct professor at Pratt Institute and author of several books on women's studies.

RSVP on Facebook (optional)

Tonight: Rules to Rock By!

Thursday, September 2, 7:30 PM
Josh Farrar reads from Rules to Rock By
With live music by The Bungles and friends

New York author Josh Farrar’s young adult novel Rules to Rock By is an indie-rock coming of age story, with an accompanying soundtrack of music by the heroine’s fictional band, The Bungles – played by real Brooklyn teen musicians. Tonight’s reading will be accompanied by live music from these talented rockers, including Sofie Kapur (singer) and Hunter Lombard (guitarist), with special guests including Kevin March (Guided by Voices/Shudder to Think), and others TBA. The evening will conclude with a Rock Band interactive version of the band’s track “Hey Satomi” – join us to rock out with Brooklyn’s literary and musical talent!

RSVP on Facebook (optional)

Tonight: Ghita Schwarz reads from Displaced Persons!

Monday, August 30, 7:30 PM
Ghita Schwarz reads from Displaced Persons

Our talented neighbor Ghita Schwarz is a civil rights litigator specializing in immigrants’ rights, and the child of postwar Jewish immigrants. In her debut novel Displaced Persons, Ghita distills the disparate experiences of the hundreds of thousands of ordinary men, women and children who lived as refugees following World War II, living in camps in Allied-occupied Europe before buildi...ng new lives, families and homelands around the world. In haunting, unsentimental prose that mimics the characters’ native cadences of Yiddish and Polish, the novel explores the self-conscious strivings of a community that sees survival as a lifelong project, and the ordinary, imperfect people who are neither mythically noble nor irrevocably broken. Join us for the launch of a novel that brings joy, sadness, love, loss, humor, anger and hope into the present and future.

RSVP on Facebook (optional)

Tonight: Inside Out Tours presents the Greenlight Open Mic!

Thursday, August 26, 8:00 PM
Inside Out Tours presents the Greenlight Open Mic Night
Hosted by Mo Beasley
Featured Poet: Chance

Award-winning Brooklyn-based company Inside Out Tours leads visitors and local residents to great cultural experiences "off the beaten path", including Greenlight’s new open mic series on the last Thursday of every month this summer! The hour-long open mic, for poets and performers of all ages, will be followed by a brief performance from a featured spoken word poet.

All performing poets will be entered into a drawing to win a tour from Inside Out and books from Greenlight Bookstore. Sign up starts at 7:30. Join us to hear some great performers, or sign up to take the stage!

RSVP on Facebook (optional)