Here’s the publisher’s blurb about Brooklyn Was Mine, a collection of nonfiction pieces by celebrated authors. The book is in stores NOW. Some proceeds go to Develop Don’t Destroy.

Of all the urban landscapes in America, perhaps none has so thoroughly infused and nurtured modern literature as Brooklyn. Though its literary history runs deep-Walt Whitman, Truman Capote, and Norman Mailer are just a few of its storied inhabitants-in recent years the borough has seen a growing concentration of bestselling novelists, memoirists, poets, and journalists. It has become what Greenwich Village once was for an earlier generation: a wellspring of inspiration and artistic expression.

Brooklyn Was Mine gives some of today’s best writers an opportunity to pay tribute to the borough they love in 20 original essays that draw on past and present to create a mosaic that brilliantly captures the quality and diversity of a unique, literary landscape.

Contributors include: Emily Barton, Susan Choi, Rachel Cline, Philip Dray, Jennifer Egan, Colin Harrison, Joanna Hershon, Jonathan Lethem, Dinaw Mengestu, Elizabeth Gaffney, Lara Vapnyar, Lawrence Osborne, Katie Roiphe, John Burnham Schwartz, Vijay Seshadri, Darcey Steinke, Darin Strauss, Alexandra Styron, Robert Sullivan, Michael Thomas

About the editors:
Chris Knutsen, a senior editor at Vogue who’s also worked at GQ, The New Yorker, and Riverhead Books, is the co-editor of Committed: Men Tell Their Stories of Love, Commitment, and Marriage.

Valerie Steiker, author of The Leopard Hat, is a senior editor at Vogue and has worked at Artforum and The New Yorker

BROOKLYN WAS MINE
Edited by Chris Knutsen and Valerie Steiker
Riverhead Trade Paperback Original; January 2, 2008
978-1-59448-282-3; $15.00

Two Readings are coming up:

JANUARY 9, 7:30 PM
Park Slope Barnes and Noble (267 7th Avenue at 6th Street)
Authors:
Jennifer Egan
Susan Choi
Darin Strauss

JANUARY 15, 7:00 PM
BookCourt (163 Court Street near Pacific Street)
Authors:
Emily Barton
Darcey Steinke
Alexandra Styron