Rachel Aviv discusses her book "Strangers to Ourselves," which illuminates the startling connections between diagnosis and identity.

Each year we gather at Alphabet City to honor an international writer or artist who shares our mission to promote and honor creative freedom for all. This year we honor Booker Prize winning poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright, Ben Okri.

This program presents a conversation between two female Sudanese writers, Caine Prize winner Leila Aboulela and City of Asylum writer-in-residence Rania Mamoun.

This delightful panel introduces four authors, two from Brazil and two from Pittsburgh, writing queer contemporary young adult (YA) literature.

This program features a stop on author K Patrick’s limited United States book tour, promoting their new book Mrs. S—a sensual slightly obsessive sapphic romance set against the backdrop of an all-girls boarding school.

In this reading, we welcome acclaimed Zimbabwean author Novuyo Rosa Tshuma to discuss her latest novel, Digging Stars.

The talented minds of our very own writers-in-residence and some of  the writers from the University of Iowa’s International Writers Program come together for a one night only collaboration featuring readings and performances, across genres. 

In this program, we welcome back the #notwhite collective as they express the hybridized and multifaceted aspects of self-defined liberation. They will be celebrating their recently released book A Future Artefact of the Global Majority: a book that catalogs the #notwhite collective’s journey, vision, members, and work spanning their first six years— 2016–2022.

Following along with our ongoing Alphabet City Kids series, this youth centered program offers story time with Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winning author/illustrator Jack Wong, as he celebrates the release of his new picture book The Words We Share. The story hour will be followed by an engagement activity and a Q&A with Jack.

This hybrid program welcomes masterful author Ariel Dorfman, who will be joining virtually, as he discusses his most recent novel, The Suicide Museum.

This conversation between Pittsburgh political cartoonist Rob Rogers and Nicaraguan cartoonist and illustrator Pedro Molina will explore political cartooning and the challenge of cartoonists facing censorship.

This hybrid program features acclaimed author Guy Gunaratne, who will be livestreamed in for the reading and conversation. They will discuss Guy’s latest novel Mister, Mister, a blazingly propulsive novel following a captured jihadist and poet-preacher as he recounts his path to international notoriety. 

To live is to tell stories. Embracing that truth, Story Club Pittsburgh (created by the former producers of The Moth Pittsburgh), organizes and hosts a monthly nonfiction storytelling series at City of Asylum. The theme for October 2023 is Unexpected.