Postcard from the Slope

Cosmopolis: Immigrant Writers in New York

Just heard about this interesting series at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza. They’ve got quite a line-up of writers. And it’s in the new Stevan Dweck Center, which is a nice venue.

The series is “Cosmopolis: Immigrant Writers in New York,” which features WNYC host Leonard Lopate in conversation with three authors, including last year’s Pulitzer Prize winner in fiction, Junot Diaz.

The first event is October 4, with Dalia Sofer, author of The Septembers of Shiraz, which was hailed as a “powerfully affecting depiction of a prosperous Jewish family in Tehran shortly after the [Iranian] revolution” that “stands a chance of becoming a classic” by bestselling novelist Claire Messud writing in the New York Times Book Review.

Dalia Sofer, author of the debut novel The Septembers of Shiraz will appear on October 4, 2008 (Saturday) at 4pm
• Hailed as a “powerfully affecting depiction of a prosperous Jewish family in Tehran shortly after the [Iranian] revolution” that “stands a chance of becoming a classic” (New York Times Book Review), The Septembers of Shiraz was released in paperback by HarperPerennial earlier this year.

Junot Diaz, author of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao will appear on November 1, 2008 (Saturday) at 4pm
• Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Diaz’s multigenerational Dominican-American family chronicle flashes “his geek credentials, his street wisdom and his literary learning with equal panache” (New York Times). Just released in paperback by Riverhead Books.

Lara Vapnyar, author of the Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love will appear on December 6, 2008 (Saturday) at 4pm:
• Having learned to speak English after emigrating to the U.S. from Moscow in 1994, Vapnyar has been called “a talented writer, possessed of an ample humor and insight and a humane sensibility” (New York Times Book Review). Her story collection was released in hardcover earlier this year by Pantheon Books.

Each event will take place at the Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture, located at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library, at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn (#2 or #3 train to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum).