LIC Reading Series

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota.

This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on February 14, 201, with Jason Diamond, Kelly Luce, and Sara Majka. Check out the panel discussion on Thursday!

About the Readers:

Jason Diamond is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn. His first book was Searching for John Hughes.

Kelly Luce is the author of the short-story collection Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail, which won Foreword Reviews’s 2013 Editor’s Choice Prize for Fiction. A native of Illinois, she holds a degree in cognitive science from Northwestern University and an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and a contributing editor for Electric Literature. She lives in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains.

Sara Majka‘s stories have appeared in A Public Space, PEN America, The Gettysburg Review, and Guernica. A former fiction fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, she lives in Queens, New York.

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This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota.

This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on October 9, 2018, with Jimmy Cajoleas, Sarah Weinman, and Cutter Wood. Check out the panel discussion on Thursday!

About the Readers:

Jimmy Cajoleas grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. He spent years traveling the country and playing music before earning his MFA from the University of Mississippi. His debut YA novel, The Good Demon, received three starred reviews, from Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus, who called it “eerie and compelling.” He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Sarah Weinman is the author of The Real Lolita, and editor of Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s (Library of America) and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives (Penguin). She has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, the Guardian, and Buzzfeed, among other outlets. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Cutter Wood completed an MFA in creative nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa. His work has appeared in Harper’s, American Short Fiction, the Paris Review, and other publications, and he has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.

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This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota.

This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on April 12, 2016, with Alexander Chee, Jonathan Lee, and Natalie S. Harnett. Check out our last episode for the readings from this event.

About the Readers:

Alexander Chee is a novelist and essayist and an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. He is a contributing editor at The New Republic, an editor at large at The Virginia Quarterly Review, and a critic at large at The Los Angeles Times.

Jonathan Lee is a British writer living in Brooklyn. High Dive is his first novel to be published in the United States.

Natalie S. Harnett has an MFA from Columbia in Fiction and has been awarded an Edward Albee Fellowship, a Summer Literary Seminars Fellowship, and a Vermont Studio Center Writer’s Grant. Her fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It has also been a finalist for the Mary McCarthy Prize, the Mid-List Press First Series Award, the Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award, and The Ray Bradbury Short Story Fellowship. Her publications include the Chicago Quarterly Review, The Irish Echo, & The New York Times. Her debut novel, THE HOLLOW GROUND, won the John Gardner Book Award, the Appalachian Book of the Year Award & was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. She lives on Long Island and Northeastern PA with her family.

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This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota.

This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on April 12, 2016, with Alexander Chee, Jonathan Lee, and Natalie S. Harnett. Check out the panel discussion on Thursday!

About the Readers:

Alexander Chee is a novelist and essayist and an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. He is a contributing editor at The New Republic, an editor at large at The Virginia Quarterly Review, and a critic at large at The Los Angeles Times.

Jonathan Lee is a British writer living in Brooklyn. High Dive is his first novel to be published in the United States.

Natalie S. Harnett has an MFA from Columbia in Fiction and has been awarded an Edward Albee Fellowship, a Summer Literary Seminars Fellowship, and a Vermont Studio Center Writer’s Grant. Her fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It has also been a finalist for the Mary McCarthy Prize, the Mid-List Press First Series Award, the Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award, and The Ray Bradbury Short Story Fellowship. Her publications include the Chicago Quarterly Review, The Irish Echo, & The New York Times. Her debut novel, THE HOLLOW GROUND, won the John Gardner Book Award, the Appalachian Book of the Year Award & was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. She lives on Long Island and Northeastern PA with her family.

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This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota.

This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on June 13, 2017, with Julia Fierro (The Gypsy Moth Summer), Brandon Harris (Making Rent in Bed-Stuy), and Hannah Tinti (The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley). Check out the readings from Tuesday in the prior episode!

About the Readers:

Julia Fierro is the author of the novels The Gypsy Moth Summer and Cutting Teeth. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Buzzfeed, Glamour, The Millions, Flavorwire, Lenny Letter, and other publications, and she has been profiled in Brooklyn Magazine, the L Magazine, The Observer, and The Economist. A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, which has grown into a creative home to 5,000 writers in NYC, Los Angeles, and Online. Julia lives in Brooklyn and Santa Monica with writer Justin Feinstein and their two children. She travels country-wide to give talks on the craft of writing, the business publishing, and on building creative communities.

Brandon Harris, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, has worked in the world of American independent film as a critic and programmer, producer and director, screenwriter and educator. His writings about cinema, politics, culture, and the intersections between them have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Guardian, VICE, Daily Beast, Variety, n+1, New Inquiry, Brooklyn Rail, In These Times, Hammer to Nail, and Filmmaker magazine, where he is a contributing editor.

Hannah Tinti is the author of the bestselling novel The Good Thief, which won The Center for Fiction’s first novel prize, and the story collection Animal Crackers, a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her new novel, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, is a national bestseller and has been optioned for television. She teaches creative writing at New York University’s MFA program and co-founded the Sirenland Writers Conference. Tinti is also the co-founder and executive editor of One Story magazine, which won the AWP Small Press Publisher Award, CLMP’s Firecracker Award, and the PEN/Magid Award for Excellence in Editing.

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This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota.

This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on June 13, 2017, with Julia Fierro (The Gypsy Moth Summer), Brandon Harris (Making Rent in Bed-Stuy), and Hannah Tinti (The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley). Check out the panel discussion on Thursday!

About the Readers:

Julia Fierro is the author of the novels The Gypsy Moth Summer and Cutting Teeth. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Buzzfeed, Glamour, The Millions, Flavorwire, Lenny Letter, and other publications, and she has been profiled in Brooklyn Magazine, the L Magazine, The Observer, and The Economist. A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, which has grown into a creative home to 5,000 writers in NYC, Los Angeles, and Online. Julia lives in Brooklyn and Santa Monica with writer Justin Feinstein and their two children. She travels country-wide to give talks on the craft of writing, the business publishing, and on building creative communities.

Brandon Harris, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, has worked in the world of American independent film as a critic and programmer, producer and director, screenwriter and educator. His writings about cinema, politics, culture, and the intersections between them have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Guardian, VICE, Daily Beast, Variety, n+1, New Inquiry, Brooklyn Rail, In These Times, Hammer to Nail, and Filmmaker magazine, where he is a contributing editor.

Hannah Tinti is the author of the bestselling novel The Good Thief, which won The Center for Fiction’s first novel prize, and the story collection Animal Crackers, a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her new novel, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, is a national bestseller and has been optioned for television. She teaches creative writing at New York University’s MFA program and co-founded the Sirenland Writers Conference. Tinti is also the co-founder and executive editor of One Story magazine, which won the AWP Small Press Publisher Award, CLMP’s Firecracker Award, and the PEN/Magid Award for Excellence in Editing.

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This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota.

This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on December 10, 2019, celebrating Writers of Queens, with Siri Hustvedt, Helen Phillips, and Jason Tougaw.

About the Readers:

Siri Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, Reading to You; seven novels, The Blindfold, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl, What I Loved, The Sorrows of an American, The Summer Without Men, The Blazing World, and Memories of the Future, as well as four essay collections, A Plea for Eros; Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting; Living, Thinking, Looking; A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women and a work of nonfiction: The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves. Hustvedt has a PhD from Columbia University in English Literature and is a lecturer in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. Her scholarly interests are interdisciplinary. She has given numerous lectures at scientific and academic conferences on philosophy, neuroscience, neurology, psychiatry, and literature, and published papers in scientific and scholarly journals. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the International Gabarron Prize for Thought and Humanities (2012). The Blazing World was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and won The Los Angeles Book Prize for Fiction 2014). In 2019, she was awarded the European Essay Prize from the Charles Veillon Foundation for The Delusions of Certainty, an essay on the mind/body problem, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, and the Princess of Asturias Award in Spain for the body of her work. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages. Hustvedt lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Helen Phillips is the author of five books, including, most recently, the novel The Need, a 2019 National Book Award nominee. Her collection Some Possible Solutions received the 2017 John Gardner Fiction Book Award. Her novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat, a New York Times Notable Book of 2015, was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and the Italo Calvino Prize. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic and the New York Times, and on Selected Shorts. She is an associate professor at Brooklyn College and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, artist Adam Douglas Thompson, and their children.

Jason Tougaw is the author of The One You Get: Portrait of a Family Organism, winner of the Dzanc Nonfiction Prize. He is currently completing a novel, Summer Isn’t, as part of his mission to write about the brain and identity in every genre he can. He is also the author of The Elusive Brain: Literary Experiments in the Age of Neuroscience, and Strange Cases: The Medical Case History and the British Novel. His work as appeared in Literary Hub, Electric Literature, OUT magazine, and Largehearted Boy. He blogs about art and science at www.californica.net.

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This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota.

This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on December 10, 2019, celebrating Writers of Queens, with Siri Hustvedt, Helen Phillips, and Jason Tougaw.

About the Readers:

Siri Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, Reading to You; seven novels, The Blindfold, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl, What I Loved, The Sorrows of an American, The Summer Without Men, The Blazing World, and Memories of the Future, as well as four essay collections, A Plea for Eros; Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting; Living, Thinking, Looking; A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women and a work of nonfiction: The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves. Hustvedt has a PhD from Columbia University in English Literature and is a lecturer in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. Her scholarly interests are interdisciplinary. She has given numerous lectures at scientific and academic conferences on philosophy, neuroscience, neurology, psychiatry, and literature, and published papers in scientific and scholarly journals. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the International Gabarron Prize for Thought and Humanities (2012). The Blazing World was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and won The Los Angeles Book Prize for Fiction 2014). In 2019, she was awarded the European Essay Prize from the Charles Veillon Foundation for The Delusions of Certainty, an essay on the mind/body problem, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, and the Princess of Asturias Award in Spain for the body of her work. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages. Hustvedt lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Helen Phillips is the author of five books, including, most recently, the novel The Need, a 2019 National Book Award nominee. Her collection Some Possible Solutions received the 2017 John Gardner Fiction Book Award. Her novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat, a New York Times Notable Book of 2015, was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and the Italo Calvino Prize. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic and the New York Times, and on Selected Shorts. She is an associate professor at Brooklyn College and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, artist Adam Douglas Thompson, and their children.

Jason Tougaw is the author of The One You Get: Portrait of a Family Organism, winner of the Dzanc Nonfiction Prize. He is currently completing a novel, Summer Isn’t, as part of his mission to write about the brain and identity in every genre he can. He is also the author of The Elusive Brain: Literary Experiments in the Age of Neuroscience, and Strange Cases: The Medical Case History and the British Novel. His work as appeared in Literary Hub, Electric Literature, OUT magazine, and Largehearted Boy. He blogs about art and science at www.californica.net.

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This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota.

This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on February 11, 2020, celebrating Writers of Queens, with Rosebud Ben-Oni (turn around, BRXGHT XYXS), Rye Curtis (Kingdomtide), Safia Jama, and Stephanie Jimenez (They Could Have Named Her Anything).

About the Readers:

Rosebud Ben-Oni is the winner of the 2019 Alice James Award for If This Is the Age We End Discovery, forthcoming in 2021, and the author of turn around, BRXGHT XYXS (Get Fresh Books, 2019). Her poem “Poet Wrestling with Angels in the Dark” was commissioned by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, and published by The Kenyon Review Online. She writes for The Kenyon Review blog. She recently edited a special chemistry poetry portfolio for , and is finishing a series called The Atomic Sonnets, in honor of the Periodic Table’s 150th Birthday. Find her at 7TrainLove.org.

Rye Curtis is originally from Amarillo, Texas. He is a graduate of Columbia University and now lives in Queens. Kingdomtide is his first novel.

Safia Jama was born to a Somali father and an Irish-American mother in Queens, New York. A Harvard graduate and a Cave Canem fellow, she has poetry appearing in Ploughshares, Boston Review, BOMB, Cagibi, and RHINO. Safia is a Pushcart-nominated poet and her manuscript was a semi-finalist in the Pleiades Press Editors Prize for Poetry. She was the subject of a “Shades of U.S.” documentary about her life and work (CUNY TV). Safia teaches in the English Department at Baruch College.

Stephanie Jimenez is based in Queens, New York. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in the Guardian, O, the Oprah Magazine, Joyland Magazine, The New York Times, and more. She is a former Fulbright recipient and a graduate of Scripps College in Claremont, California. Her debut novel, They Could Have Named Her Anything, was published on August 1, 2019 (Little A).

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This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota.

This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on February 11, 2020, celebrating Writers of Queens, with Rosebud Ben-Oni (turn around, BRXGHT XYXS), Rye Curtis (Kingdomtide), Safia Jama, and Stephanie Jimenez (They Could Have Named Her Anything).

About the Readers:

Rosebud Ben-Oni is the winner of the 2019 Alice James Award for If This Is the Age We End Discovery, forthcoming in 2021, and the author of turn around, BRXGHT XYXS (Get Fresh Books, 2019). Her poem “Poet Wrestling with Angels in the Dark” was commissioned by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, and published by The Kenyon Review Online. She writes for The Kenyon Review blog. She recently edited a special chemistry poetry portfolio for , and is finishing a series called The Atomic Sonnets, in honor of the Periodic Table’s 150th Birthday. Find her at 7TrainLove.org.

Rye Curtis is originally from Amarillo, Texas. He is a graduate of Columbia University and now lives in Queens. Kingdomtide is his first novel.

Safia Jama was born to a Somali father and an Irish-American mother in Queens, New York. A Harvard graduate and a Cave Canem fellow, she has poetry appearing in Ploughshares, Boston Review, BOMB, Cagibi, and RHINO. Safia is a Pushcart-nominated poet and her manuscript was a semi-finalist in the Pleiades Press Editors Prize for Poetry. She was the subject of a “Shades of U.S.” documentary about her life and work (CUNY TV). Safia teaches in the English Department at Baruch College.

Stephanie Jimenez is based in Queens, New York. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in the Guardian, O, the Oprah Magazine, Joyland Magazine, The New York Times, and more. She is a former Fulbright recipient and a graduate of Scripps College in Claremont, California. Her debut novel, They Could Have Named Her Anything, was published on August 1, 2019 (Little A).

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This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices