Tonight: David Winner!

Thursday, October 28, 7:30 PM
David Winner reads from The Cannibal of Guadalajara

Fort Greene author David Winner is the author of several works of short fiction, and has been nominated for a Pushcart award and had a short film of one of his stories shown at the Cannes Film Festival. His new novel The Cannibal of Guadalajara won the 2009 Gival Press Novel Prize, and has received advanced praise from National Book Award winners Shirley Hazzard and John Casey. David reads from his book at Greenlight this evening – join us in congratulating an award-winning local author!

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Tonight at Greenlight: Charles Burns!

Friday, October 22, 7:30 PM
Charles Burns presents X’ed Out

The creator of the acclaimed and influential graphic novel Black Hole presents the first volume in an epic masterpiece of graphic fiction with his new book X’ed Out. Influenced by both Tintin comics and William S. Burroughs, the full-color comic tells the story of Doug, who wakes to a weird buzzing noise and a visit from his long-dead cat. The comic has never been serialized, so the freaky adventure that follows is all new! Burns will show slide show images from his work and talk about X’ed Out at Greenlight.

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Tonight at Greenlight: Steamboat Comedy!

Thursday, October 21, 7:30 PM
Steamboat: A Literary Humor Series
Hosted by Bob Powers and Jason Reich
Featuring Tim Carvell (Planet Tad), Tom Leopold (Milt & Marty), and Ritch Duncan (The Werewolf’s Guide To Life)

On the third Thursday of every month, join Bob Powers (author of Happy Cruelty Day) and Jason Reich (former writer for The Daily Show), as they welcome the city's best humor writers for a night of wine-addled text-based hilarity. This month’s offerings include Tim Carvell, Daily Show writer and author of the forthcoming Planet Tad; Tom Leopold, who has written on countless classic sitcoms and most recently is one of the authors of Milt & Marty: The Longest Lasting, Least Successful Comedy Writing Duo in Showbiz History; and Ritch Duncan, co-author with Bob Powers of The Werewolf's Guide to Life: A Manual for the Newly Bitten (just in time for Halloween.)

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Tonight: National Reading Group Month Celebration!

Tuesday, October 19, 6:30 PM
The Women’s National Book Association hosts a National Reading Group Month celebration
Panel discussion and book signing featuring Susan Henderson (Up from the Blue); Sheri Holman (The Dress Lodger); Rick Moody (The Four Fingers of Death); Emily St. John Mandel (The Singer’s Gun); and Jackson Taylor (The Blue Orchard); moderated by Rosalind Reisner (Read On: Life Stories and Jewish American Literature)
Reception with refreshments and reading group signups before and after discussion

National Reading Group Month (NRGM) was launched in 2007 by the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA), to highlight the role of book groups in American cultural and literary life, and to enable more readers to get connected with reading groups in their community. Greenlight is proud to host the third annual WNBA-New York City chapter NRGM event with a star-studded panel of local authors talking about their work. At the reception preceding and following the panel, readers will have the chance to sign up to get information about Greenlight’s in-house reading groups (which will begin meeting in January), connect with other local reading groups, or register their existing reading group with Greenlight for special group discounts. Join us to observe National Reading Group Month and kick off Greenlight’s brand-new reading group programming!

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Tonight: David Rakoff!

Thursday, October 14, 7:30 PM
David Rakoff reads from Half Empty

Belovedly cynical humorist and wit David Rakoff (author of Fraud and Don’t Get Too Comfortable) returns to Greenlight to present his newest collection, Half Empty. The book ranges from the personal to the universal, combining stories from Rakoff’s reporting and accounts of his own experiences to defend the commonsensical notion that you should always assume the worst, because then you’ll never be disappointed. Whether he’s lacerating the musical Rent for its cutesy depiction of AIDS or dealing with personal tragedy, his sharp observations and flair for the absurd will have you positively reveling in the power of negativity.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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