Seriously Entertaining will return to Joe’s Pub on March 19, 2024 with the theme “Off the Record.” Get tickets here!

Doors: 6 PM / Show: 7 PM

An unexpected tragedy at a community pool. A family’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control; to make time speed up or stop; to be frighteningly, undeniably good at something. Each of the eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come to Reno, Nevada, to compete to be named the best in the country. Through a series of face-offs that are raw, ecstatic, and punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness, prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkel animates the competitors’ pasts and futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, and force of will required to win.

Frenetic, surprising, and strikingly original, Headshot is a portrait of the desire, envy, perfectionism, madness, and sheer physical pleasure that motivates young women to fight—even, and perhaps especially, when no one else is watching.

Featuring Will Epstein, Ismail Muhammad, C Pam Zhang, Hilary Leichter, and Catherine Lacey.

RSVP and tickets here.

Spring is in the air and Books and Burlesque is back Saturday, March 9th from 9:00-11:00pm at Caveat bringing you all the sexy showiness and must-reads of the season!

Featuring exciting award-winning authors reading excerpts from their new books: Shashtri Akella “The Sea Elephants,” Jeanne Mackin “Picasso's Lovers,” Katie Gee Salisbury “Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong,” Hilary Leichter “Terrace Story: A Novel,” and Richard Mirabella “Brother & Sister Enter the Forest: A Novel.”

Each author has been paired with a spectacular burlesque or drag performer who will be creating new acts inspired by the books they read! Starring Minnie Tonka, Mizzaddy, RuAfza, Dominant Jeane and Fortune Cookie. With stage kittens Scarlet Song, Sideshow Scandal, and Racy DeClare. Co-produced by Rosie Tulips and hosted by Fortune Cookie!

Our local bookstore partner, Book Club Bar (197 East 3rd Street) will be selling signed copies of all our featured authors books.

Discounted early bird tickets will sell out so get them before February 10th! Livestream tickets also available.

More information here.

A bracing writer of great nerve and verve, Anne de Marcken bends reality (and the reader’s mind) with throwaway assurance. It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over plumbs mortality and how it changes everything, except possibly love. Delivering a near-Beckettian whopping to the reader’s imagination, this is one of the sharpest and funniest novels of recent years, a tale for our dispossessed times.

The heroine of the spare and haunting It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over is voraciously alive in the afterlife. Adrift yet keenly aware, she notes every bizarre detail of her new reality. And even if she has forgotten her name and much of what connects her to her humanity, she remembers with an implacable and nearly unbearable longing the place where she knew herself and was known—where she loved and was loved. Traveling across the landscapes of time and of space, heading always west, and carrying a dead but laconically opinionated crow in her chest, our undead narrator encounters and loses parts of her body and her self in one terrifying, hilarious, and heartbreaking situation after another.

RSVP and tickets here.

Tobias Carroll, author of IN THE SIGHT
Hilary Leichter, author of TERRACE STORY
Brad Riew, Blue Marble substack 
Tyriek White, author of WE ARE A HAUNTING

All Les Bleus events have an attendance cap based on the size of the space. All attendees must be vaccinated. Once we reach the cap, a waiting list will be created.

RSVP to lesbleusnyc@gmail.com for location.

The Poets & Writers Series is sponsored by the Temple University MFA Program in Creative Writing, with the assistance of the Department of English and the Richard Moyer Fund. Each year a number of poets and fiction writers are invited to read from and discuss their work to members of both the Temple community and the local Philadelphia arts scene. All events are free and open to the public.

More details here.

In the long-awaited debut novel from bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle.

The Book of Love showcases Kelly Link at the height of her powers, channeling potent magic and attuned to all varieties of love—from friendship to romance to abiding family ties, with her trademark compassion, wit, and literary derring-do. Readers will find joy (and a little terror) and an affirmation that love goes on, even when we cannot.

RSVP and tickets here!

The Creative Writing department's Reading Series welcomes visiting author Hilary Leichter to campus for a reading and Q&A followed by a book signing.

More information here.

Reading and conversation. More details here.

Featuring Mona Awad, C Pam Zhang, and Jami Nakamura Lin. Hosted by Temim Fruchter and Brian Gresko!

Art + Life is an intimate conversation series of poets and writers organized by Columbia’s Undergraduate Creative Writing Program for majors and aficionados. It has hosted writers like Eileen Myles, Morgan Parker, Tommy Pico, Jenny Zhang, and many others, and provides an opportunity for students to ask the invited reader questions and to engage in roundtable discussions with the artist.

Hernan Diaz with be in conversation with Adjunct Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Creative Writing Advisor in Fiction, Hilary Leichter.

Free and open to the public. RSVP here!

P&T Knitwear, in conjunction with Yaddo, is pleased to welcome Hilary Leichter for a discussion of her new novel, Terrace Story — an intimate exploration of time, a fable about love, an epic daydream for a broken-hearted world — along with an audience Q&A and book signing! From one of our most innovative and daring writers, Terrace Story is an astounding meditation on loss, a reverie about extinction, and a map for where to go next.

Hilary will be joined in conversation by Sam Lipsyte, Guggenheim Fellow and author of the novel No One Left to Come Looking for You. After the talk, Hilary will sign copies of her book. This event is presented in partnership with Yaddo, as part of their programming.

A reading and conversation with the brilliant author of the hilarious and heartbreaking new novel Death Valley.

RSVP here.

Terrace Story descends on Baltimore, in conversation with the fabulously talented Molly McGhee, author of Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind.

Humanities Tennessee presents The 35th annual Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word℠! The Festival is among the oldest literary festivals in the country. The Festival is free, and includes performance stages, food trucks, publishers and booksellers.

One Woman Show and Terrace Story: These two innovative and daring novels experiment with narrative structure, leaving us with heartbreaking stories, questions about our place in the universe, and beautiful prose.

Details here.

Join Christine Coulson to celebrate the release of One Woman Show, a novel written almost entirely in museum wall labels. An excerpt of 10 labels will be read by 10 artists, writers, and curators including Maira Kalman, Sloane Crosley, Michael Hainey, Hilary Leichter, Negin Farsad, Doon Arbus, Neil Selkirk, Jeff Rosenheim, Melanie Holcomb, and Navina Haidar.

A conversation between the author and Hilary Leichter will follow.

RSVP/tickets here!

An evening at one of my favorite bookstores, with one of my favorite bookstore owners, the marvelous Lori Feathers!

Details here.

Come hang outside The Twig Book Shop, grab a copy of Terrace Story, and stay for a chat!

Join us for a discussion with the author of Terrace Story, Hilary Leichter. Hilary will be joined in conversation by local artist Joey Fauerso. Details here!

Featuring Dorothea Lasky, Hilary Leichter, Isle McElroy, Elle Nash, Robert Lopez, and Erica Lewis. Drink specials, book raffle, details here.

Alejandro Varela, Henry Hoke, Adam Levin, and Hilary Leichter explore urban living in their captivating, city-driven books. Join this panel discussion on community, identity, and the quest for belonging with Varela’s The People Who Report More Stress, a poignant exploration of LGBTQ identities and family dynamics with New York as the backdrop. In Mount Chicago, Levin reimagines the city in wild and hilarious fashion. Hoke’s Open Throat will engage you in a fantastical world where nature and urban life merge. Meanwhile, Leichter’s metaphysical Terrace Story weaves an intimate tale of family amid every city-dweller’s dream: the magical discovery of new space in a cramped apartment. Moderated by Sarah High (Bookshop.org).

Details here.

The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) will present the twentieth annual Six Bridges Book Festival from September 25 – October 1, 2023. Named for the six bridges that connect the downtowns in Little Rock and North Little Rock, the Festival bridges communities and brings people together.

In Hilary Leichter’s Terrace Story, Annie, Edward, and their daughter find a beautiful terrace hidden in the closet of their cramped apartment. But every bit of extra space has a hidden cost, and the terrace sets off a seismic chain of events, forever changing the shape of the world.

Ben Purkert’s debut novel The Men Can’t Be Saved tackles a haunting question: What do our jobs do to our souls? In this startlingly original examination of work, sex, addiction, religion, branding, and ourselves, Seth is a junior copywriter whose latest tagline just went viral. He tries to discover his spiritual self by day, while popping illegal prescription pills by night and straying farther from salvation.

For more information about this event, or the Six Bridges Book Festival, please call 501-918-3000.

This event is FREE! Details here.

Terrace Story is the September pick for Amerie’s Book Club! Join us @amerie on Instagram Live for a fun conversation. All times EST.

Catching Feelings: Finding Emotion in Fiction
Sunday, September 24
11 AM  – 2 PM PST / 2 – 5 PM EST
Online

When a work of fiction makes us “feel” something, where do those feelings come from? What does it mean to be moved by a work of art, and where (or what) are we moved to? As writers, do we dare attempt to produce emotion in a reader? And how do we do it? In this generative class, we’ll explore the mystery of fictional feeling, and attempt to locate it, follow it, and learn its tendencies. Participants will discuss short readings, complete prompts and exercises, and explore various strategies—from humor, to dramatic shifts in perspective, to an unexpected word choice—for affecting the reader. We will speak frankly about the instance when literature breaks through into lived experience, a phenomenon that could perhaps be called a moment of truth.

Register here.

Double-header! A conversation and reading with fellow Ecco writer and literary superstar, author of the critically-acclaimed Days of Distraction and the new story collection Tomb Sweeping! Moderated by the superb and brilliant Katherine D. Morgan.

A reading and conversation with the incomparable, award-winning author of Home Remedies, “tough, luminous stories about destiny, fealty, belonging, and heartbreak.” (The New York Times)

Details here.

An evening with the extraordinary author of Belly Up, a collection of stories that is “beautiful and poetic, funny, strange, heartbreaking and wise” (NPR). And wait until you read Rita’s forthcoming novel, Headshot…(out in 2024!)

Details here.

A virtual chat with the astounding, New York Times-bestselling author of The School for Good Mothers. 7pm Central Time, RSVP here.

Reading and conversation with the great and brilliant Jennifer Wilson. Tickets and details here.