LIVE! From City Lights

An evening of writers talking about writing and celebrating the publication of "Refuse To Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts," by Matt Bell, published by Soho Press. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "Refuse To Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/refuse-to-be-done-ht-write-rewrite-a/ Matt Bell is the author most recently of the novels "Appleseed"(a New York Times Notable Book of 2021), "Scrapper" (a Michigan Notable Book), and "In the House upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods"(a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award). His stories have appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, Esquire, Tin House, Conjunctions, Fairy Tale Review, Gulf Coast, and many other publications. A native of Michigan, he now teaches creative writing at Arizona State University. Kirstin Chen is the author of "Soy Sauce for Beginners" and "Bury What We Cannot Take." Her new novel, "Counterfeit," is forthcoming from William Morrow/HarperCollins in June 2022. She has received fellowships and awards from the Steinbeck Fellows Program, Sewanee, Hedgebrook, Djerassi, the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, the Toji Cultural Foundation, and the National Arts Council of Singapore. She teaches creative writing at the University of San Francisco and in Ashland University’s Low-Residency MFA Program. Born and raised in Singapore, she currently lives in San Francisco. Jac Jemc is the author of "False Bingo," "The Grip of It," "My Only Wife," and "A Different Bed Every Time." "My Only Wife" was a finalist for the 2013 PEN / Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction and winner of the Paula Anderson Book Award, and her story collection "False Bingo" won the Chicago Review of Books Award for fiction, was a Lambda Award finalist, and was longlisted for The Story Prize. Jemc has been the recipient of two Illinois Arts Council Professional Development Grants and currently teaches creative writing at UC San Diego. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

City Lights in conjunction with the Mechanics’ Institute Library and Alfred Knopf present Leila Mottley in conversation with Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, celebrating her fiction debut "Nightcrawling," published by Alfred A. Knopf. This live event took place at the Mechanics’ Institute Library in San Francisco and was hosted by Laura Sheppard and Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "Nightcrawling" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/nightcrawling/ Leila Mottley is the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and Oprah Daily. She was born and raised in Oakland, where she continues to live. "Nightcrawling" is her first novel. Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, born and raised in New Orleans, studied creative writing at Dartmouth College and law at UC Berkeley. Her most recent novel, "The Revisioners," won a 2020 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work and a George Garrett New Writing Award; was a California and Northern California Book Award finalist, a 2020 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award Finalist and a Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing finalist; was nominated for the 2020 Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Prize; and was a national bestseller as well as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her debut novel, "A Kind of Freedom," was long-listed for the National Book Award and the Northern California Book Award, won the Crook’s Corner Book Prize, and was the recipient of the First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Zyzzyva, The Paris Review; O, The Oprah Magazine; The New York Times Book Review; and other publications. She lives in Oakland with her family. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Nadifa Mohamed in conversation with Tommy Orange, celebrating the release of her new novel "The Fortune Men," published by Alfred Knopf. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "The Fortune Men" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/fortune-men/ Nadifa Mohamed was born in 1981 in Hargeisa, Somaliland. At the age of four she moved with her family to London. She is the author of "Black Mamba Boy" and "The Orchard of Lost Souls." She has received both The Betty Trask Award and the Somerset Maugham Award, and in 2013, she was named as one of Granta‘s Best of Young British Novelists. Her work appears regularly in The Guardian and the BBC. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she lives in London. Tommy Orange is a novelist and writer from Oakland, California. His first book "There There" was one of the finalists for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and received the 2019 American Book Award. Orange is a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He attended Institute of American Indian Arts and earned the Masters in Fine Arts. He was born and raised in Oakland, California, and makes his home in Angels Camp, California. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

City Lights in conjunction with the Asian American Writers’ Workshop present K-Ming Chang in conversation with Lily Philpott, celebrating her new collection "Gods of Want: Stories," published by One World Books. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "Gods of Want: Stories" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/new-fiction-in-hardcover/gods-of-want-stories/ K-Ming Chang is a Kundiman fellow, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. She is the author of the novel "Bestiary," which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Lily Philpott runs and manages AAWW events, fellowships, and workshops. She has many years of experience curating literary programs in New York City. Previously, she served as the Public Programs Manager at PEN America, where she launched the PEN Out Loud event series with the Strand Book Store, co-curated a summer event series with the Brooklyn Museum, and coordinated Lit Crawl NYC. She has also worked on public programs and development events at the Guggenheim Museum and the New York Public Library, respectively, and is a member of the Brooklyn Book Festival’s International Literature Committee and an Advisory Board Member of the U.K. based publisher And Other Stories. The Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW) is a national literary nonprofit dedicated to publishing and incubating work by Asian and Asian diasporic writers, poets, and artists. Since their founding in 1991, they have provided a countercultural literary arts space at the intersection of migration, race, and social justice. Find out more at: https://aaww.org This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Ingrid Rojas Contreras in conversation with Esmé Weijun Wang, celebrating the launch of "The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir," published by Doubleday. This live event took place in Kerouac Alley, between City Lights and Vesuvio Cafe, and was hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/man-who-could-move-clouds/ Ingrid Rojas Contreras was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her first novel "Fruit of the Drunken Tree" was the silver medal winner in First Fiction from the California Book Awards, and a New York Times editor’s choice. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Believer, and Zyzzyva, among others. She lives in California. Esmé Weijun Wang is a novelist and essayist. She is the author of the New York Times-bestselling essay collection, "The Collected Schizophrenias"(2019), and a debut novel, "The Border of Paradise," which was called a Best Book of 2016 by NPR. She was named by Granta as one of the “Best of Young American Novelists” in 2017 and won the Whiting Award in 2018. Born in the Midwest to Taiwanese parents, she is the founder of The Unexpected Shape™ Writing Academy for ambitious writers living with limitations. She can be found at esmewang.com and on Twitter @esmewang. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

John Nichols in conversation with Congressman Ro Khanna, discussing Nichol’s new book "Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis," published by Nation Books. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/coronavirus-criminals-pandemic-profi/ John Nichols is the national affairs correspondent for The Nation magazine, and the author or co-author of more than a dozen books on media and democracy. He is a regular guest on radio and television programs, and has been featured in a number of documentaries based on his writing and reporting. A co-founder of the media reform group Free Press, he has twice keynoted world congresses of the International Federation of Journalists. Of Nichols, author Gore Vidal said, “Of all the giant slayers now afoot in the great American desert, John Nichols’s sword is the sharpest.” Ro Khanna is a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California’s 17th congressional district since 2017. He has also served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the United States Department of Commerce under President Barack Obama from August 8, 2009, to August 2011. He is one of only six members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and ten members of Congress, who do not take campaign contributions from political action committees (PACs). This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Dodie Bellamy in conversation with Chris Kraus, celebrating Dodie Bellamy's two new books; "Bee Reaved" and "The Letters of Mina Harker," published by Semiotext(e)/Native Agents. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "Bee Reaved" & "The Letters of Mina Harker" directly from City Lights here: "Bee Reaved" - https://citylights.com/staff-picks/bee-reaved/ "The Letters of Mina Harker" - https://citylights.com/general-fiction/letters-of-mina-harker/ Dodie Bellamy's writing focuses on sexuality, politics and narrative experimentation, challenging the distinctions between fiction, the essay and poetry. In 2018–19 she was the subject of "On Our Mind", a yearlong series of public events, commissioned essays and reading group meetings organized by CCA Wattis ICA. With Kevin Killian, she coedited "Writers Who Love Too Much: New Narrative 1977–1997." A compendium of essays on Bellamy's work, "Dodie Bellamy Is on Our Mind", was published in 2020 by Wattis ICA/Semiotext(e). Chris Kraus is a filmmaker and the author of "I Love Dick" and "Aliens & Anorexia", and coeditor of "Hatred of Capitalism: A Semiotext(e) Reader". "Index" called her "one of the most subversive voices in American fiction." Her work has been praised for its damning intelligence, vulnerability and dazzling speed. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Amitava Kumar in conversation with Aleksandar Hemon, discussing Amitava Kumar's new novel "A Time Outside This Time" published by Alfred Knopf. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "A Time Outside This Time" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/new-fiction-in-hardcover/time-outside-this-time/ Amitava Kumar is a writer and journalist. He was born in Ara, India, and grew up in the nearby town of Patna, famous for its corruption, crushing poverty, and delicious mangoes. Kumar is the author of the novel "Immigrant, Montana," as well as several other books of nonfiction and fiction. He lives in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he is Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair at Vassar College. Aleksandar Hemon is the author of "The Lazarus Project," which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and three books of short stories: "The Question of Bruno;" "Nowhere Man," which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and "Love and Obstacles." He was the recipient of a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship and a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation, and the 2020 Dos Passos Prize. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Farah Jasmine Griffin in conversation with Robin D.G. Kelley, discussing her new book "Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature," published by W.W. Norton & Co. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Josiah Luis Alderete. You can purchase copies of "Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/read-until-you-understand/ Farah Jasmine Griffin is a professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of "Who Set You Flowin'?": The African-American Migration Narrative, and the coeditor of "A Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African-American Travel Writing." She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Ford Foundation and the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College. She lives in Philadelphia. Robin D.G. Kelley is a scholar history of social movements in the U.S., the African Diaspora, and Africa; black intellectuals; music and visual culture; Surrealism, Marxism, among other things. His essays have appeared in a wide variety of professional journals as well as general publications, including the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, The Nation, Monthly Review, New York Times, Color Lines, Counterpunch, Souls, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noir, Social Text ,The Black Scholar, Journal of Palestine Studies, and Boston Review, for which he serves as Contributing Editor. He is the author of "Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times" (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012); "Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original" (The Free Press, 2009); "Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination" (Beacon Press, 2002); with Howard Zinn and Dana Frank, "Three Strikes: The Fighting Spirit of Labor's Last Century" (Beacon Press, 2001); "Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America"(Boston: Beacon Press, 1997); "Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class" (New York: The Free Press, 1994); "Into the Fire: African Americans Since 1970" (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) [Vol. 10 of the Young Oxford History of African Americans series]; "Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression" (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990). This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

In conjunction with Zyzzyva, City Lights presents Gabriela Alemán and Dick Cluster in conversation with Oscar Villalon, celebrating the publication of "Family Album: Stories," published by City Lights Books. "Family Album" is Ecuadorian author Gabriela Alemán’s rollicking follow-up to her acclaimed English-language debut, "Poso Wells." This event was originally broadcast live via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "Family Album: Stories" directly from City Lights at a 30% discount here: https://citylights.com/family-album-stories/ Gabriela Alemán was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She received a PhD at Tulane University and holds a Master’s degree in Latin American Literature from Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar. She currently resides in Quito, Ecuador. Her literary honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006; member of Bogotá 39, a 2007 selection of the most important up-and-coming writers in Latin America in the post-Boom generation; one of five finalists for the 2015 Premio Hispanoamericano de Cuento Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia) for her short story collection "La muerte silba un blues;" and winner of several prizes for critical essays on literature and film. Her novel "Poso Wells" was published in English translation by City Lights in 2018. Oscar Villalon is the managing editor at the literary journal ZYZZYVA. His writing has appeared in Freeman’s, the Virginia Quarterly Review, The Believer, Stranger’s Guide, Literary Hub, and other publications, and in the anthology There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis (Vintage). A former board member of the National Book Critics Circle, and a former book editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, he lives in San Francisco. Dick Cluster is a writer and translator based in Oakland, California. His original work includes three novels and two books of history, most recently "The History of Havana" (with Rafael Hernández). Other Cuban writers he has translated include Aida Bahr, Pedro de Jesús, and Abel Prieto. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation