Angie Cruz: How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

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

Angie Cruz is a novelist and editor. Her novel, Dominicana, was the inaugural book pick for Good Morning America book club and chosen as the 2019/2020 Wordup Uptown Reads. It was shortlisted for The Women’s Prize, longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction, The Aspen Words Literary Prize, a RUSA Notable book and the winner of the ALA/YALSA Alex Award in fiction. It was named most anticipated/ best book in 2019 by Time, Newsweek, People, Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Esquire. She’s published shorter works in The Paris Review, VQR, Callaloo, Gulf Coast and other journals. She's the founder and Editor-in-chief of the award winning literary journal, Aster(ix)  and is currently an Associate Professor at University of Pittsburgh. She divides her time between Pittsburgh, New York, and Turin.

Gary Shteyngart: Our Country Friends

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

Award winning author Gary Shteyngart visits City of Asylum in person to read from and discuss his NY Times best-selling novel Our Country Friends. 
In the rolling hills of upstate New York, a group of friends and friends-of-friends gather in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, relationships will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate what matters most. 
The unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their precocious child obsessed with K-pop; a struggling Indian American writer; a wildly successful Korean American app developer; a global dandy with three passports; a Southern flamethrower of an essayist; and a movie star, the Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family.
The novel is elegiac and very, very funny, and Gary’s visit promises to be just as ripe with emotion and laughs. 

Dubravka Ugrešić: Thank you for Not Reading

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

Neustadt Prize winning author Dubravka Ugrešić joins us to read from and discuss her newest work "Thank You for Not Reading." A very funny and biting critique of book publishing: agents, subagents, and scouts, supermarket-like bookstores, book fairs that have little to do with books, and authors promoted because of sex appeal instead of merit, this collection is a perfect examination for modern day readers. In conversation with Nina Herzog from the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Pittsburgh Live/Ability: Encounters in Poetry & Prose

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

Pittsburgh Live/Ability: Encounters in Poetry and Prose is a literary collection that reflects the realities of life for Pittsburghers with disabilities. It is the creative culmination of two years of connection and work between 11 multilingual, multiply disabled, and multiply abled Pittsburgh writers and 11 Pittsburghers with disabilities. It is an intimate collaboration recounting what it means to translate oneself into an abled world, and the dynamic and textured diversity of lives pursued in our city. 

DISSIDENCE: Exiled Writers on Resistance & Risk

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

Russian poet Dmitry Bykov nearly died in a poisoning, then found himself banned from teaching and pursuing his work as a public figure. Essayist Pwaangulongii Dauod received death threats for writing about queer culture in his native Nigeria. Cartoonist Pedro X. Molina watched as Nicaraguan state forces jailed his colleagues and occupied the offices of the newspaper where he published his work. Novelist Anouar Rahmani was threatened with imprisonment for writing about human rights in Algeria. 
All four were forced to flee their homelands and live in the US Cities of Asylum network (Pittsburgh, Ithaca, and Detroit). Now all four share the stage for the first time, sharing their experiences, their writings, and their commitments to creative freedom of expression. 

I Am (Romance): Ukrainian theater in translation

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

In Ukrainian author Mykola Khvylovy's 1924 novel "I am (Romance)," the head of the local Cheka sentences his mother to death in the name of the ideals of the revolution. In 2022, Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine in the name of protecting the “Motherland.” As a result of his ideals, millions of Ukrainians are now displaced. 

5 Ukrainian theater artists, now known as the Slovo Theater Group,  have spent a 5-week residency  in Pittsburgh with playwright Audrey Rose Dégez interpreting Khyvlovy’s work into performance. 

Poetry in Concert: Contemporary Chamber Music with Imani Winds

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

The dynamic and twice Grammy nominated Imani Winds have led a revolution and evolution of the wind quintet through their dynamic playing, dedication to new works from composers of color, imaginative collaborations, and programming concerts that speak to contemporary social justice issues.
Imani Winds joins us to close LitFest 2022 by performing an all new lineup of works inspired by and interweaving dynamic pieces of poetry.

Andrew Conte: Death of the Daily News

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

What happens when a town loses its local newspaper?
In Death of the Daily News, author Andrew Conte examines the closure of McKeesport's The Daily News, grapples with the local news deserts that leave citizens with little access to reliable local journalism, and how communities can come together to forge a path forward when their local newspapers shutter.

Actors Talk August Presented by August Wilson House: Russell Hornsby

City of Asylum @ Home

Along with an active career on film and TV, Russell Hornsby has starred in five August Wilson plays, most notably in Denzel Washington’s “Fences” (both on Broadway and on film) and in the title role in “King Hedley II” at the Signature Theatre. His compelling interview is one of the most thoughtful, insightful in the 33 sessions of the Actors Talk August series. Register to see it (just your zip code required) and send the link to August Wilson fans among your friends!

Off Minor Jazz Series: Thelonious Monk

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

The Monktet celebrates Thelonious!
Thelonious Sphere Monk is one of America’s most iconic and original artists. To celebrate his birthday (October 10th), Pittsburgh musicians Thomas Wendt and David Throckmorton have assembled a new quintet—the Monktet—to perform some Monk. With varying instrumentation between tunes, the group shares their unique take on Monk’s extensive catalog, playing with well-known classics as well as showcasing obscure gems.

In-Dialogue series Presented by the #notwhite Collective

City of Asylum @ Home

Celebrating and recognizing arts and cultural workers, especially those who tend to be under the radar and forgotten about, the #notwhite collective has featured speakers from southwestern PA as well as national leaders in the arts.
October’s conversation features Shey Rivera.
The #notwhite collective is a group of thirteen women artists whose mission is to use non-individualist, multi-disciplinary art to make our stories visible as we relate, connect, and belong to the global majority.

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