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Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is a poet, essayist, translator, and the first undocumented student to graduate from the Univ. of Michigan’s Creative Writing MFA program. His collection, "Cenzontle" (BOA editions, 2018), won the 2017 A. Poulin, Jr. prize. His chapbook, DULCE, was chosen by Chris Abani as the winner of the Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize. His memoir, "Children of the Land," is forthcoming from Harper Collins. Castillo is a cofounder of the Undocupoets campaign which successfully eliminated citizenship requirements from all major first poetry book prizes in the country and was recognized with the Barnes and Noble “Writers for Writers” award. He has translated the work of Argentinian modernist poet, Jacobo Fijman and co-translated Mexican poet Marcelo Uribe with the late C.D. Wright. His work has appeared on the PBS NewsHour, in "New England Review," "Gulf Coast," "Indiana Review," "Southern Humanities Review," and "BuzzFeed," among other publications. He lectures at Cal. State Univ., Sacramento, and teaches summers at The Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. ~Video by www.Poetry.LA 
With Nadxieli Nieto, Hannah Lillith Assadi, Victor LaValle, Nicole Sealey, & Hari Kunzru
As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie so eloquently puts it, “when we realize there is never a single story about a place, we regain a kind of paradise." PEN Literary Awards finalists Hari Kunzru, Victor LaValle, Nicole Sealey, and Hannah Lillith Assadi read from their work, and bring a glimpse of paradise to the Strand Book Store. Through a wide range of genres and themes, we celebrate the multiplicity of American stories which define the American literary canon as we know it, showcasing the masterful breadth of work being published and celebrated today.
Hannah Lillith Assadi holds an MFA in fiction from the Columbia University School of the Arts. She was raised in Arizona and lives in Brooklyn. Her novel Sonora (Soho 2017) received the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction.
Hari Kunzuru is the author of five novels, most recently White Tears. His work has been translated into twenty-one languages, and his short stories and journalism have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and The New Yorker. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The New York Public Library, and the American Academy in Berlin. He lives in Brooklyn.
Born in St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. and raised in Apopka, Florida, Nicole Sealey is the author of Ordinary Beast, finalist for the 2018 PEN Open Book Award, and The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named, winner of the 2015 Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming to Best American Poetry 2018,The New Yorker,The New York Times and elsewhere. Nicole holds an MLA in Africana studies from the University of South Florida and an MFA in creative writing from New York University. She is the executive director at Cave Canem Foundation and the 2018-2019 Doris Lippman Visiting Poet at The City College of New York.
Victor LaValle is the author of seven works of fiction and one comic book. His most recent novel, The Changeling, was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2017 by Time Magazine, USA Today, and the New York Public Library. His comic book, Victor LaValle's Destroyer, is a continuation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein taking place in the modern day and tackling contemporary political issues. He teaches writing at Columbia University. 
Just in time for the World Cup, style guru and soccer fan Simon Doonan introduces his new book “Soccer Style: The Magic and Madness.”
Simon Doonan has two passions in life: Fashion and Football. At one time these two obsessions would have made very strange bedfellows. But times have changed: football and fashion have fallen in love. The unapologetic and unbridled style choices of today's soccer stars offer a fascinating window into the heart of the game.
Looking at the beautiful game through the lens of style, Doonan entertainingly explores the magic and madness of this unique culture. Charting football style from its very beginnings, he pays homage to the great style icons of the game, from George Best to Lionel Messi, before turning his gaze to the hair, the tattoos and the cars, not to mention those other style icons of the game: the fans, the managers and, of course, the WAGs.
Doonan's laser wit and hilarious observations are complemented by more than 230 photographs, making this a laugh-out-loud read for even the most fickle football fan or fashionista.
Writer, columnist and football obsessive Simon Doonan is the Creative Ambassador for Barneys New York. He has worked in fashion for over 35 years, and is the author of six books, including the tongue-in-cheek style guides Eccentric Glamour and Gay Men Don't Get Fat. Simon will be appearing as a judge on upcoming NBC television show, Making It, co-hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. 
Lauren Groff, author of the New York Times best selling book, Fates and Furies, is with us to talk about her forthcoming book, Florida. Groff has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Kirkus Prize and the LA Times Book Prize.
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
In her vigorous and moving new book, Lauren Groff brings her electric storytelling and intelligence to a world in which storms, snakes, and sinkholes lurk at the edge of everyday life, but the greater threats and mysteries are of a human, emotional, and psychological nature. Among those navigating it all are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless, childless couple, a searching, homeless woman; and an unforgettable, recurring character - a steely and conflicted wife and mother.
The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but Florida—its landscape, climate, history, and state of mind—becomes its gravitational center: an energy, a mood, as much as a place of residence. Groff transports the reader, then jolts us alert with a crackle of wit, a wave of sadness, a flash of cruelty, as she writes about loneliness, rage, family, and the passage of time. With shocking accuracy and effect, she pinpoints the moments and decisions and connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope and despair, love and fury—the moments that make us alive. Startling, precise, and affecting, Florida is a magnificent achievement. 
Dylan Jones's engrossing, magisterial biography of David Bowie is unlike any Bowie story ever written. Drawn from over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers, and collaborators, some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie, this oral history weaves a hypnotic spell as it unfolds the story of a remarkable rise to stardom and an unparalleled artistic path.
Tracing Bowie's life from the English suburbs to London to New York to Los Angeles, Berlin, and beyond, its collective voices describe a man profoundly shaped by his relationship with his schizophrenic half-brother Terry; an intuitive artist who could absorb influences through intense relationships and yet drop people cold when they were no longer of use; and a social creature equally comfortable partying with John Lennon and dining with Frank Sinatra.
By turns insightful and deliciously gossipy, David Bowie is as intimate a portrait as may ever be drawn. It sparks with admiration and grievances, lust and envy, as the speakers bring you into studios and bedrooms they shared with Bowie, and onto stages and film sets, opening corners of his mind and experience that transform our understanding of both artist and art. Including illuminating, never-before-seen material from Bowie himself, drawn from a series of Jones's interviews with him across two decades, David Bowie is an epic, unforgettable cocktail-party conversation about a man whose enigmatic shapeshifting and irrepressible creativity produced one of the most sprawling, fascinating lives of our time.
