Thank You for Not Reading is a biting critique of book publishing: agents, subagents, and scouts, supermarket-like bookstores, Joan Collins, book fairs that have little to do with books, and authors promoted because of sex appeal instead of merit.  Nowadays, the best strategy for young authors wanting to publish is to become famous in some other capacity first. The Neustadt Prize winner Dubravka Ugrešić‘s newest collection of fictional essays is a searing examination of the industry, arguing that the publishing machine ultimately neglects literature in favor of accessible, entertaining books for the masses.

In this work, Ugrešić dissects book culture and draws comparisons between the art of socialist realism (as prescribed by the Soviets) and the nature of the contemporary marketplace to produce and promote art that appeals to everyone. 

Dubravka joins us live, virtually, from her home in Croatia to read from and discuss her newest work. In conversation with Los Angeles Review of Books‘ Nina Herzog.  We invite you to watch the conversation live from Alphabet City on our big screen.  Live audiences will be able to ask questions of Dubravka live in real time.  

Audiences may remember Dubravka’s visit to City of Asylum in 2018, an evening filled with wit and humor, and an evening that still ranks as a high staff favorite among City of Asylum staff members.

Dubravka Ugrešić is the author of seven works of fiction, including The Museum of Unconditional Surrender and Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, along with six collections of essays. She has won, or been shortlisted for, more than a dozen prizes, and she received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature (the “American Nobel Prize”) for her body of work.

This program is part of the Pittsburgh International Literary Festival (LitFest ’22). Learn more about the LitFest lineup.

About your visit:

Remember you can dine at the in-house restaurant 40 North after the program. Please visit Open Table or call 412-435-1111 to make a reservation.