Around Town: Colm Toibin and Belinda McKeon at The Center for Fiction

Fiction lovers of New York, take note!  The Center for Fiction is a non-profit organization devoted solely to celebrating fiction.  Through their numerous panels, lectures, and other events, the Center for Fiction connects writers to their readers.  The Center, located on East 47th St., supports budding writers, curious readers, and literacy projects.  They also run an independent fiction bookshop, and a circulating library collection dating back to 1820.

This Thursday, February 23rd, at 7:00 pm, join the Center for Fiction for one of their free literary events.  Authors Colm Tóibín and Belinda McKeon will be coming together to discuss their writing.  Colm Tóibín is the author of six novels – his most recent being the story collection The Empty Family. Belinda McKeon is a playwright and novelist, whose debut novel Solace was named a Kirkus Outstanding Debut of 2011.  As both writers are from Ireland, this is an excellent opportunity to learn more about Irish literature, and fiction writing in general.

For more information, visit the Center for Fiction website and take a look at their events.

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Around Town: Thalia Book Club – Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic

Julie Otsuka, nominated for the 2011 National Book Award for The Buddha in the Attic, will be at Symphony Space this week. Otsuka, also the author of When the Emperor Was Divine, will be discussing The Buddha in the Attic, with the performer and essayist David Rakoff (Fraud, Half Empty). The book traces the lives of a group of Japanese picture brides who come to America in the early 1900s, beginning with the boat journey on which they imagine their husbands and concluding with their “disappearance” during World War II. Like Otsuka’s first book, The Buddha in the Attic is about identity and what it means to be “other” in uncertain times.  An excerpt will be performed by Rita Wolf. The Buddha in the Attic is on the 2011 Great Group Reads list and Otsuka was kind enough to be on our panel of authors for the 2011 New York National Reading Group Month event.

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