I was lucky enough to attend two wonderful readings this week in New York.
On Thursday night, at Books Are Magic, I saw Jamel Brinkley and Garth Greenwell in conversation to discuss Jamel’s second collection, Witness, which came out earlier this month. An evening with these two writers is a master class in craft. I loved Jamel’s first collection, A Lucky Man, and I think Witness is even stronger. There’s a breadth to these stories, and a way in which the tone and cadence switches from one story to the next. I think he’s the best short story writer out there.
Garth asked wonderful questions about what it means to witness, about how Jamel determines when to reveal key information, and about how he never allows a reveal to be the conclusive moment in a story. Jamel talked about how he’s interested in playing with the structure of a story, and in not necessarily presenting the past and present in separate moments, but in interrogating the way in which the past and the present intermingle.
I was most interested in the conversation about the way in which Jamel responds to earlier works and other writers, about how he pays homage to those who came before. He talked about the fact that writers are often told to write what they know, which is true, but that part of what writers know is what they have read. So it makes sense that we respond to the writers that we love—they are the ones who have inspired us, the ones who have taught us the craft. Jamel also mentioned that his friend and fellow writer D. Wystan Owen mentioned to him that this collection felt musical to him, in the way that other works are featured or paid homage to: it was akin, he thought, to sampling in hip-hop, and Jamel absolutely agreed. There is music in every one of Jamel’s sentences, and I love the thought of music running through the entire collection in this way. (Side note: if you haven’t read D. Wystan Owen’s marvelous collection, Other People’s Love Affairs, I highly recommend it!)
You can watch the full discussion here.
On Wednesday night, at PT Knitwear, I had the opportunity to go to the launch of The Great Transition, a wonderful debut novel from Nick Fuller Googins. Nick was in conversation with another favorite writer, Gina Chung. (Another side note: be sure to read Gina’s fantastic debut novel Sea Change!)
Nick’s novel tells the story of a family—parents Larch and Kristina, daughter Emi—who live in a post-climate crisis world. Larch and Kristina were on the front lines of saving the world, and Emi has grown up knowing that her parents were heroes. Now, suddenly, Kristina is missing, and Larch and Emi take a trip to New York to see if they can find her. It is a beautifully written, hopeful novel; it’s a plea, I think, to all of us to do whatever we can to save our planet. I was particularly struck by the relationship between Larch and Emi, which is gentle and loving and kind. Not unlike Nick himself.
It was fantastic to be part of the full house celebrating Nick and his novel. Nick is passionate about the climate and how we can all become involved in making change. He was inspired, in part, by AOC and the development of the Green New Deal. He mailed a copy of the novel to Bernie Sanders, and he dropped off a copy for AOC at her office in the Bronx. Not to flaunt his work, as that is not the way Nick moves through the world, but as a thank you for the inspiration. He finished up the night, not by asking us to buy his book, but to support Pine Tree Power, a referendum in Maine which would make electricity a public utility.
A wonderful side benefit of attending readings is running into friends and other writers. Nick and I were in the MFA program together at Rutgers-Newark. We were lucky to have a faculty which included Jayne Anne Phillips, John Keene, Tayari Jones, Rigoberto González, Akhil Sharma, A. Van Jordan, Brenda Shaughnessy, and my favorite Alice Elliott Dark. I learned much from each of them.
But the highlight, for me, was the opportunity to become part of a writing community. I looked around the room last night and saw so many of my cohort there to support Nick. And I realized that most people from my time at Rutgers have books in the pipeline, many others have books already out in the world. They’re all fantastic. I hope you check them out.
Andrés Cerpa, Bicycle In A Ransacked City and The Vault
Megan Cummins, If The Body Allows It
Nick Fuller Googins, The Great Transition
Michelle Hart, We Do What We Do In The Dark
Safia Jama, Notes On Resilience
Anisa Rahim, An American Meo
Laura Villareal, Girl’s Guide To Leaving
See you in two weeks!
What a gift this is with the links to the talks. Thank you so much!!!
oh, lucky you, getting to attend these readings. it's one of the main things i miss about living in NY. and wow, you studied with tayari jones and akhil sharma?! also wonderful that your MFA cohort are all doing well and supporting each other. i love to see that generosity. thanks for the recap and for including the youtube link!