Welcome to our weekly round-up of the best literary events to check out. This week has a speed-illustrating contest, a lecture with the New Yorker cartoonists, a talk with A Brief History of Seven Killings author Marlon James, and more, oh so much more, dear reader.
I Only Read It For the Cartoons: An Evening with (Some Of) the New Yorker‘s Most Brilliant Artists
School of Visual Arts, Thursday December 11 at 7:30 pm, free
If you, like so many of us, leaf through one of the nation’s foremost journals of reportage to look for the cartoons, then this event, given in conjunction with the School of Visual arts’ BFA program in cartooning, is likely right up your alley. Author Richard Gehr, who wrote a book about the cartoon crew of the New Yorker in his book I Only Read It for the Cartoons, will lead a discussion with Edward Koren, Lee Lorenz, Keith Mayerson, and Victoria Roberts about their lives in ink.
WORD Holiday Open House
WORD Greenpoint, 126 Franklin St, all day
The folks at WORD want to help make your holiday shopping as painless as possible: Visit the bookstore in Greenpoint for hot apple cider, Peter Pan doughnuts, and a screening of It’s a Wonderful Life in the basement, plus gift-wrapping for all the books you buy for the people on your list.
The 5th Annual Dumbo Holiday Party
PowerHouse Arena, Sunday December 14, 3:00 pm
A good event for the literary set with a kids, the annual holiday party at the PowerHouse bookstore includes an event where, per their website, “kids books illustrators battle each other in a fast-paced and good-natured drawing competition based on holiday-inspired suggestions from kids in the audience.” Plus Santa will be there!
Marlon James and Salman Rushdie In Conversation
The New York Public Library, Monday December 15 at 7:00 pm, $25
Jamaican author Marlon James talks about his masterful book A Brief History of Seven Killings with none other than literary heavyweight Salman Rushdie, the author who, according to James, was “by and large the writer who made me want to write the books.”
Gabrielle Hamilton and Brooks Headley in Conversation
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, Wednesday December 17, 7:00 pm, free
The author of Blood, Bones, and Butter and chef/owner of Prune restaurant in the East Village, Gabrielle Hamilton sits down for a chat about food and the written word with Del Posto executive pastry chef Brookls Headley. They’ll be discussing Headley’s new cookbook, Fancy Dessert, which sounds pretty excellent, as well as Headley’s past as a punk rock drummer.
OKCupid Cofounder Christian Rudder’s Dataclysm Reading
New York Public Library, Wednesday December 17, 6:30 pm
The man who launched a hundred awkward bar encounters, OKCupid founder and president Christian Rudder, expounds upon the science behind matchmaking in the digital era in a reading at the New York Public Library. Who knows who you might meet?