Kristin Dombek on to How to Write a Book About Narcissists Without Becoming One

August 16, 2016 By Bradley Spinelli

“The Selfishness of Others” (Image via Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)

Kristin Dombek’s legendary essay “How to Quit,” published in the winter 2013 edition of n+1, garnered heated word of mouth and praise from the likes of Brooklyn Magazine’s Kristen Iversen, and that was before Dombek won a Rona Jaffe award, published “Letter from Williamsburg” in The Paris Review, and got a double book deal.

The first of those books has arrived, and it’s called The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism, out this week from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, and while an essay might have a hard time making a splash in a media ocean churned by Trumpty Dumpty and the Olympics, the book has already drawn praise from the Times.
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Tags: Art + Culture, books, greenlight books, interviews, Kristin Dombek, narcissism, NPD, The Selfishness of Others, The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism

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4 Readings: Nathan’s Hot Dog History, Palestinian Struggles, and a Father’s Transition

June 21, 2016 By Kavitha Surana

WEDNESDAY

Book Launch: In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi
June 22 at 7 p.m. at The Powerhouse Arena. 37 Main Street (DUMBO)
Is identity something you choose, or is it actually the very thing you can’t escape? This is the question Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Susan Faludi poses in her most personal work yet, In the Darkroom. In 2004 Faludi went in search of her estranged 76-year-old father, a man who had been an elusive and sometimes violent presence in her childhood and then all but disappeared from her life. When Faludi discovered he had undergone sex reassignment surgery and was now living in Hungary, her whole frame of reference was shaken to the core. Her book is an effort to unpack her father’s transition and her own questions of identity, while traveling through a country in the midst of its own dangerous project of refashioning its nationhood.

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Tags: Arts + Culture, Bars + Restaurants, Ben Ehrenreich, coney island, food, greenlight books, hot dog eating contest, Ina Yalof, nathan's famous, nathan's famous hot dogs, nom wah tea parlor, palestine, powerhouse arena, Susan faludi, the strand

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4 Talks: Biblical Prosties, a Mag for Dads, and Edward Mapplethorpe’s Cute Babies

April 26, 2016 By Kavitha Surana

TUESDAY

WORD Presents: Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus with Chester Brown
April 26 at 7 p.m. at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, 126 Crosby Street
Comics, prostitution and the Bible. What better combination? Cartoonist Chester Brown is known for his 2011 graphic novel, Paying for It: A Comic-Strip Memoir About Being a John. Now he returns with Mary Wept over the Feet of Jesus, a controversial look at biblical women and representations of prostitution, from Bathsheba to the Virgin Mary. By re-examining the Bible’s moral code in comic strip format, it’s bound to raise some eyebrows. Brown will be joined by Dr. Melissa Ditmore (Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work) and Ceyenne Doroshow (Cooking In Heels).

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Tags: chester brown, christos ikonomou, dad magazine, edward mapplethorpe, greenlight books, Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, jaya saxena, Matt Lubchansky, the strand

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4 Talks: Yoga-Class Erotica, Jack Bender’s ‘Picture Book for Adults,’ and More

April 12, 2016 By Kavitha Surana

TUESDAY

Love Thyself, Kunt: A Night with Badlands Unlimited
April 12 at 7 p.m. at KGB Bar, 85 East Fourth Street.
When Badlands Unlimited’s “New Lovers” series is involved, you know what to expect: no-holds-barred erotica with a surreal or even sick twist. Tamara Faith Berger will read from her new novel, Kuntalini, a story about a young woman named Yoo-hoo who experiences sexual awakening in her yoga class and embarks on a wild journey from there. Michael Robbins, author of poetry collection Alien vs Predator and Lynne Tillman, whose sixth novel Men And Apparitions is out next year, will also read.

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Tags: badlands unlimited, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, greenlight books, Haris Durrani, Jack Bender, KGB Bar, Kuntalini, mcnally jackson, Mount Pleasant, Patrice Nganang, The Elephant in the Room, word bookstore

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Men With Cats, and 3 More Talks and Readings Not to Miss This Week

February 9, 2016 By Kavitha Surana

TUESDAY

Kia Corthron + Robin D. G. Kelley
Feb. 9 at 7:00 p.m. at The Strand, 828 Broadway
Kia Corthron, playwright and writer for The Wire, tackled an American saga for her debut novel. The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter begins on the eve of WWII with two white brothers coming of age in the rural Alabama klan, and two black brothers preparing to navigate the country’s shifting civil rights era in Maryland. The two narratives continue into the 21st century, culminating in a devastating encounter between the two families. Corthron will discuss with Robin D. G. Kelley, expert on African American studies.

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Tags: greenlight books, housing works bookstore, idra novey, kevin young, kia corthron, powerhouse arena, the strand

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Talks + Readings: Internet, City and Ocean – Approaches to the Commons

January 12, 2016 By Kavitha Surana

The Idealist by Justin Peters

The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet
Tuesday, January 12 at 7:00 p.m. at The Strand, 828 Broadway
When 26-year-old computer prodigy Aaron Swartz committed suicide in 2013, the tech community was shocked. A founding developer of Reddit and the Creative Commons, Swartz was an important figure for those who supported open information online over an increasingly atomized and commercial internet model. In the aftermath of his death, Slate’s Justin Peters traces the history of the Internet free culture movement and examines Swartz’s legacy as a “data moralist.”

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Tags: aaron swartz, architecture, Bluestockings, feminism, gender, greenlight books, mayday space, social movements, the strand, Urban Omnibus, urban planning, welfare