Cultural Center of reading and writing brings Brooklyn 200 years of New York history

The Center for Fiction is hosting new events this fall

September 6, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

The Center for Fiction opens today in Fort Greene, joining other big-name cultural institutions like BAM and the Mark Morris Dance Group. Photos courtesy of the Center for Fiction

The Center for Fiction, at 15 Lafayette Ave. Photo: the Center for Fiction

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More than just a bookstore, the Center for Fiction is a key fixture on one of the richest cultural street corners in Brooklyn. Now across from BAM and almost next door to the Theatre for A New Audience, the Center for Fiction was founded more than 200 years ago in Manhattan as the New York Mercantile Library.

Savvy and literate Brooklynites have already discovered that the Center has performance spaces, writers’ retreats, cafes and countless programs to aid and abet the art of creating great, memorable literature.

The EAGLE is proud to help get the word out by offering our readers some of the gems from the Center’s latest newsletter.

The Center for Fiction Presents: A.M. Homes on The Unfolding with Kurt Andersen
Tuesday 9/6 at 7PM ET

The author of thirteen books, A.M. Homes’s writing is subversive, timely, and exacting. The Center for Fiction is thrilled to welcome her to our stage in celebration of her new novel The Unfolding, which tells the alternative history of the time after the 2008 US Presidential election. Tackling division in both family and in government, Homes considers power in every shape and form. Join her in conversation with author and political correspondent Kurt Andersen.

The Art of the Short Story: Sidik Fofana, David Means, and Rebecca Miller with Idra Novey
Wednesday 9/7 at 7PM ET

Join us in welcoming Sidik Fofana, David Means, and Rebecca Miller to our stage in celebration of their accomplished new short story collections. From eight interconnected narratives centered around neighbors in the same Harlem apartment complex to intense speculative visions of the future, these collections show some of the wildly diverse possibilities of the exciting and multifaceted world of the contemporary short story. Dive in with us for a conversation on craft, form, process, and publication moderated by author Idra Novey.

The Center for Fiction and WORDTheatre Present a Tribute to the Work of Randall Kenan
Tuesday 9/8 at 7PM ET

In 2020, we lost beloved, award-winning writer and scholar Randall Kenan, master of both nonfiction and fiction and curator of James Baldwin’s unpublished works. Southern, Black, and gay, much of Kenan’s fiction centered on place, a fictional town in North Carolina similar to the one where he was raised. His nonfiction displays his warmth, intellect, and insight, and is collected in a new volume, Black Folk Could Fly. In a WORDTheatre® performance that weaves together excerpts from this stunning new collection of essays, actors CG, Marinda Anderson, Michael Boatman, and Ryan Jamaal Swain will bring Kenan’s language to life, followed by a discussion with Kenan’s longtime friend A.M. Homes and author Elias Rodriques. Afterward, join us in raising a glass to his legacy.

Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival: The Wajang Discotheque’s I Belong to the House of Music: King of Soca
Friday 9/9 at 6PM ET

With the U.S. launch of the biography of Machel Montano entitled King of Soca, the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival opening night will offer its stage to Elizabeth ‘Lady’ Montano, the book’s author and mother of its namesake. Lady will share what she calls the ‘ultimate insider’ information charting how her son, Machel Montano, became the biggest name in soca music and how that international journey began here in Brooklyn. In conversation with Lady Montano is Attillah Springer, a modern-day archivist, jouvayist, and scholar of Trinidadian and Afro-Caribbean culture.