Reading

Author Nina Sharma shares her debut memoir, “The Way You Make Me Feel: Love in Black and Brown,” a hilarious and moving story of her interracial relationship, told in essays.

Praised as a “gripping…lush and suspenseful summer read” (Al Dìa) with echoes of the pop culture phenomenon The White Lotus (Crime Reads), "The Grand Paloma Resort" grabs readers and refuses to let go. 

Poet Yona Harvey and scholar Tahira J. Walker explore what it means to be a Black woman living in a city deemed most unlivable for them. The pair will discuss their respective works and the intersection of history, community, marginalization, and resistance. In conversation with Damon Young.

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.

Poets Aaron El Sabrout, imogen xtian smith, and Julian Talamantez Brolaski take to the Alphabet Reading Garden for a poetic exploration of trans and nonbinary ecologies and understanding one’s own ecosystems.

Anne Carson, one of the most celebrated classicists of our times, will participate in staged readings from her works "Cassandra Float Can" (based on Aeschylus’s "Cassandra") and "Antigonick" (based on Sophokles’s "Antigone").

A dynamic discussion that will traverse hybrid and experimental poetic forms as well as the art, broadly speaking, of translation. Moderated by Michelle Gil-Montero.

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.

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.

A reading and celebration of short fiction honoring 45 years of the Drue Heinz Prize, one of the most significant short fiction awards in the nation, with current and alumni prizewinners.

City of Asylum’s Writer-in-Residence series continues with an exciting preview of Algerian writer and activist Anouar Rahmani’s forthcoming new novel, "The End of the Third World"—a project seven years in the making.

In the World Literature premiere of our fall programming season, novelist Carlos Manuel Álvaraz will join moderator Anderson Tepper and translator Natasha Wimmer in a reading and discussion of his thrilling new novel depicting the disintegration that comes from being uprooted.

“The Atlantic” staff writer George Packer shares his new work of fiction, “The Emergency,” in conversation with writer, critic, and performance poet Adriana E. Ramírez.

Congolese author Alain Mabanckou shares his ghostly reckoning with Congolese history, Dealing With the Dead, in conversation with moderator Anderson Tepper.

Pat Hart and Marc Nieson’s Free Association Reading Series is BACK for 2026, and we are excited to welcome regional writers to celebrate 10 years of readings.

It’s time to celebrate the Youth Poet Laureate 2025–2026 cohort at City of Asylum’s annual commencement reading! Welcome Youth Poet Laureate Ivy Smith and Youth Poet Ambassadors Vanshika Jain, Monroe Law, Ashley Shim, and Lillia Strickland as they share new social justice–themed works.

In the first World Literature program of the year, Anderson Tepper will be in conversation with Cameroonian author Patrice Nganang to discuss his new memoir, “Scale Boy: An African Childhood.”

Pat Hart and Marc Nieson’s Free Association Reading Series continues this February with four regional writers sharing new and in-progress works.

Award-winning writer and professor Namwali Serpell shares her new work on Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison in this reading and discussion moderated by Anderson Tepper.

Celebrate the launch of Sony Ton-Aime’s debut poetry collection, a masterwork in imagining an alternative future, navigating our present, and finding language for our common past.

Writer-in-Residence Volodymyr Rafeyenko’s latest work comes to life in this staged reading and discussion of “Signals of Being,” a three-act play depicting the tensions of a country at war and the critical bonds formed among community.

City of Asylum Writer-in-Residence and celebrated Haitian poet, Bertony Louis, shares his oeuvre in conversation with fellow Haitian poet Sony Ton-Aime.

Anderson Tepper joins Pulitzer Prize–winning author Cristina Rivera Garza in a reading and discussion of a fictionalized though deeply personal retelling of her grandparents’ journey through the mining towns and cotton fields along the Mexico-US border.

Pat Hart and Marc Nieson’s Free Association Reading Series continues this March with four regional writers sharing new and in-progress works.

Award-winning author of “Chlorine” and Pittsburgh native Jade Song returns to City of Asylum for the launch of her sophomore novel, a macabre and deeply original coming-of-age work navigating the meaning of life and the inevitability of death.

Pat Hart and Marc Nieson’s Free Association Reading Series continues this April with four regional writers sharing new and in-progress works.

Anderson Tepper joins bestselling Algerian author Amara Lakhous as he shares his new psychological thriller, brimming with deceit and intrigue of a criminal investigation in postcolonial Algeria.

Our On Topic series continues this season with a moderated discussion among free speech experts, who will get into the weeds of current controversies and the role free expression plays in maintaining a democratic government.

From the minds of Andrew Swensen and Yan Pang, City of Asylum hosts an expanded showcase of “Shelter,” the story of scars carried from childhood into adulthood, how pain can distort our perception and damage our relationships, and how we find our strength through it.