Host(s):
Sackett Street Writers Workshop
Appearing:
Anna Solomon
Nicole Dennis-Benn
Flynn Berry
Taylor Larsen
Kim Brooks
Moderated by: Julia Fierro
On the Docket:
Audience Q&A
Book Signing
Panel Discussion
Nicole Dennis-Benn is the author of Here Comes the Sun(Norton/Liveright, July 2016), which received a starred Kirkus Review and was picked as one of the best books to read this summer and beyond by New York Times, NPR, BBC, BuzzFeed,Book Riot, Bookish, Miami Herald, Elle, O Magazine, Marie Claire, Entertainment Weekly, Flavorwire, After Ellen,BookPage, Cosmopolitan, Brooklyn Magazine, among others.New York Times book reviewer, Jennifer Senior describes Here Comes the Sun as a “lithe, artfully-plotted debut.” Dennis-Benn has also been recently nominated for the 2016 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Nicole’s work has appeared in The New York Times, ELLE Magazine, Electric Literature, Lenny Letter, Catapult, Red Rock Review, Kweli Literary Journal,Mosaic, Ebony, and the Feminist Wire. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and has been awarded fellowships from MacDowell Colony, Hedgebrook, Lambda, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Hurston/Wright, and Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, she lives with her wife in Brooklyn, New York.
Flynn Berry is a graduate of the Michener Center, Brown University, has been awarded a Yaddo residency, and is an alum of Sackett Street Writers. Under the Harrow is her first novel and will be published in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and the UK. NPR’s Maureen Corrigan wrote a rave review of the novel for the Washington Post, “Enough with comparisons: Under the Harrow is such a superbly crafted psychological thriller, it deserves to be celebrated for its own singular excellence.” Claire Messud, author of The Woman Upstairs, said of the book, “Once I started reading Under the Harrow, I couldn’t stop. It’s like Broadchurch written by Elena Ferrante. I’ve been telling all my friends to read it—the highest compliment. Flynn Berry is a deeply interesting writer.”
Taylor Larsen is a graduate of Columbia University’s MFA program in fiction writing. Taylor has taught fiction writing at Columbia University and the Sackett Street Writers Workshop, as well as literature courses for Pace University. Taylor is an author at Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster for her novel, Stranger, Father, Beloved, which released in July of 2016. Originally from Alexandria, Virginia, Taylor currently resides in Brooklyn, NY with her husband. “A mesmerizing, unsparing exploration of one man’s descent, told in subtle, precise language that is reminiscent at times of Raymond Carver, Haruki Murakami, and Carson McCullers, but entirely Larsen’s own creation; a wonderful debut.”–Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove
Kim Brooks’ first novel, The Houseguest, is now available from Counterpoint Press. Her memoir, Small Animals: A Memoir of Parenthood and Fear, will be published in 2017 by Flatiron Books/ Macmillan. Her stories have appeared in Glimmer Train, One Story, Five Chapters and other journals and her essays have appeared in Salon, New York Magazine, and Buzzfeed. She lives in Chicago with her husband and children and teaches online workshops for Sackett Street Writers.
Julia Fierro is the author of the novel Cutting Teeth, published in 2014 and called “a comically energetic debut” by The New Yorker. Her next novel, The Gypsy Moth Summer, will be published in June 2017. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, now a creative home to over 3,000 writers and named “New York City’s best writing class” by Time Out NY, L Magazine, and Brooklyn Magazine; and a “Top Alternative to MFA programs” by Poets & Writers. Workshops are offered throughout NYC and online. Her work has been published inPoets & Writers, Glamour, Psychology Today, and other publications, and she has been profiled in the L Magazine,Brooklyn Magazine, The Observer and The Economist. She lives in Brooklyn and Los Angeles.