LitFest 2025: Books From My Country You Should Know with Olena Boryshpolets (Ukraine), Bertony Louis (Haiti), Anouar Rahmani (Algeria) & Mukhtar Shehata (Egypt)

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

What are we missing when we limit the literary canon to American works? In this reading and discussion, City of Asylum Writers-in-Residence share the books and writers from their home countries—Algeria, Egypt, Haiti, and Ukraine—that made an impact on their respective literary scenes and that all US readers should add to their lists.

LitFest 2025: Bringing Chinese Literature to America with Editor Han Zhang (Riverhead Books) & Translator Jeremy Tiang

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Zhang Yueran’s translated novel "Women, Seated" has become an undeniable hit among American audiences. But what does it take to bring Chinese literature to the US? In conversation with Anderson Tepper, editor Han Zhang and translator Jeremy Tiang will discuss the translation process and the importance of translated literature in America.

LitFest 2025: Love & Family, India & America, Tradition & Modernity with Booker Prize Winner Kiran Desai (“The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny”)

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

2006 Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai returns to City of Asylum to share her triumphant, deeply romantic, newly Booker Prize–shortlisted novel, “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” in conversation with Anderson Tepper.