The Center for Fiction

The Center for Fiction A home for writers and readers for over 200 years. We support and celebrate fiction through events, writing workshops, reading groups, awards, and more.

Visit our bookstore, café and bar, auditorium, and membership spaces in Downtown Brooklyn.

Join us at the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival on Sunday, 9/13, for the launch of THAT YOU ARE HERE IS NO SMALL THI...
08/14/2026

Join us at the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival on Sunday, 9/13, for the launch of THAT YOU ARE HERE IS NO SMALL THING (Penguin Kids), a new picture book from award-winning author Traci N. Todd featuring illustrations by Caldecott-medalist author and illustrator Vashti Harrison. https://tinyurl.com/527tbd8r

✨ With care and artistry, 'That You Are Here Is No Small Thing' weaves through space and time in a sweeping exploration of culture and community, showcasing what it means for Black children to fight, survive, and dream.

Todd and Harrison will be joined by children’s book author Breanna J. McDaniel ('Auntie’s Baby') for a fun and engaging conversation about creative collaboration, cultural memory, community, and more.

People of all ages are welcome to attend! https://tinyurl.com/527tbd8r

“A book should be the axe for the frozen sea within us.” — Franz KafkaIn our upcoming workshop “Writing Visceral Experim...
08/10/2026

“A book should be the axe for the frozen sea within us.” — Franz Kafka

In our upcoming workshop “Writing Visceral Experimental Fiction” with Marc Anthony Richardson, participants will use multiple modalities—poetry, prose, literature, and film—to cultivate a sense of creative freedom that enhances the emotional, psychological, and aesthetic experiences of their writing. Writers will generate new work weekly, read aloud to determine the effects of the spoken word, and be encouraged to experiment and to write with daring and deep emotion.

At the end of the course, each student will present a final creative project in the form of an original short story, several poems, or a standalone excerpt from a larger narrative, to be workshopped in class.

📚 Readings will include:
𖧹 ‘Postcolonial Love Poem’ by Natalie Diaz
𖧹 ‘Incendiary Art’ and ‘Blood Dazzler’ by Patricia Smith
𖧹 Short stories from ‘Going to Meet the Man’ by James Baldwin
𖧹 Selections from ‘This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen’ by Tadeusz Borowski
𖧹 Excerpts of the novels ‘Invisible Cities’ by Italo Calvino and ‘The Mirror in the Well’ by Micheline Aharonian Marcom

🎞️ Optional works include the films:
𖧹 ‘4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days’ by Cristian Mungiu
𖧹 ‘Hunger’ by Steve McQueen
𖧹 ‘A Woman Under the Influence’ by John Cassavetes
𖧹 ‘Come and See’ by Elem Klimov

Curious? Learn more and register https://tinyurl.com/u24mamx5!

From a Korean American coming-of-age story to a novel about expat life in Mexico, Melanie’s recommendations this week ar...
08/08/2026

From a Korean American coming-of-age story to a novel about expat life in Mexico, Melanie’s recommendations this week are an international adventure that will scratch your summer travel itch. Read her full reviews here https://tinyurl.com/3nn9wm2e!

📗 A TENDER AGE by Chang-rae Lee: ”A touching portrait that builds to a heartbreaking climax.”

📗 TAKE WHAT YOU CAN by Naima Coster: “Coster is impressively perceptive about motherhood and sisterhood.”

📗 HUSTLE, BABY by Priya Guns: “Another of Guns’s probing fictions about the challenges of diasporic life, wrapped in an immensely readable satire.”

📗 MIA by Leslie Bazzett: “Bazzett’s debut is a tense, psychological thriller.”

📗 THE TRAVELER by Andrea Wulf: “There are many reasons to pick up Wulf's new book: discover an extraordinary adventurer from the mid-18th century; meet a botanist far ahead of his time, who was an early proponent of human rights; and revel in a thrilling narrative from one of our most acclaimed historians.”

Another Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival event you don’t want to miss: Join us on Saturday, September 12th, when we ...
08/06/2026

Another Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival event you don’t want to miss: Join us on Saturday, September 12th, when we welcome Julia Alvarez, recipient of our 2026 Lifetime of Excellence in Fiction Award, and illustrator Krystal Quiles to The Center to celebrate the launch of the graphic novel adaptation of Alvarez’s award-winning novel, IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES. 🦋 https://tinyurl.com/58czu4p5

Alvarez’s novel is inspired by the true story of the Mirabal sisters, also known as Las Mariposas, who organized a rebellion against Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961. Following the sisters from their childhood in the village of Ojo de Agua to their eventual murder in 1960, the book blends the personal and the political with intelligence and grace. Quiles’s illustrations add a fresh dimension to the work, introducing rich, new possibilities for readers to engage with the story.

📚Jaquira Díaz, author of This Is the Only Kingdom, will moderate Alvarez and Quiles’s conversation, exploring the processes of collaboration and adaptation as well as the importance of sharing histories of tragedy and resistance.

Tickets are available now—get yours here https://tinyurl.com/58czu4p5.

“Is home the place where we are born? Or is it the place where we die?”We’re thrilled to welcome Edwidge Danticat back t...
08/03/2026

“Is home the place where we are born? Or is it the place where we die?”

We’re thrilled to welcome Edwidge Danticat back to The Center for the launch of her new novel, DÈY, as part of this year’s Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival. She’ll be joined by Monique Truong, author of the award-winning novel The Book of Salt.

📖 Dèy tells the story of Magnolia, a successful Haitian American real estate agent who is caught in a random act of violence at a shopping mall in Miami—but decides not to tell anyone about the traumatic experience when she is safely home. In the aftermath of the event, Magnolia begins to reexamine her relationships with the people closest to her.

In her latest work, Danticat expertly moves between various worlds: those of mortals and ghosts, Miami and Haiti, single and married life. With profound warmth, she evokes the importance of shared grief and resilient family ties.

🎟️ All tickets to this event include a copy of Dèy. Get yours ASAP centerforfiction.org/event/bclf-and-the-center-for-fiction-present-edwidge-danticat-on-dey-with-monique-truong!

Survival takes on many forms in Melanie Fleishman’s fiction picks this week: A young woman survives a plane crash in the...
08/01/2026

Survival takes on many forms in Melanie Fleishman’s fiction picks this week: A young woman survives a plane crash in the American West; a Nigerian man experiences the nuances of his race-altered state; a woman from Arkansas attempts to make it in the Big Apple with the help of a feline friend; and a former military dog begins an odyssey home. Plus! A new collection of essays by one of our most esteemed writers.

Read what Melanie says about each in full https://tinyurl.com/mwhj8arc.

📖 SUNRISE by Téa Obreht: “An intricate mystery straight out of Jon Krakauer’s ‘Into the Wild’.”

📖 WHYTEFACE by A. Igoni Barrett: “With a lively wit, Barrett shrewdly investigates the power of color and identity.”

📖 KITTEN by Stacey Yu: “Katie tries to figure out how to outgrow her complicated childhood and finally become responsible. She just might make it.”

📖 ETNA by Paul Yoon: “Encounters with both people and animals [form] a lovely, hopeful novel.”

📖 TRIAGE by Claudia Rankine: “A stimulating, thought-provoking volume.”

We’re honored to present Julia Alvarez with the 2026 Lifetime of Excellence in Fiction Award.✨ The author of eight novel...
07/29/2026

We’re honored to present Julia Alvarez with the 2026 Lifetime of Excellence in Fiction Award.

✨ The author of eight novels, three books of nonfiction, five collections of poetry, and twelve books for children and young adults, Alvarez has inspired countless readers, writers, and artists; we are proud to recognize her contributions to literature.

“It’s gratifying to be so fully welcomed by The Center for Fiction, a place that centers storytelling as a true meeting place for all of us,” Alvarez said. “The Center affirms what I knew early on, as a young girl, reciting poetry, long before I came into English and dreamed of becoming a writer. The stories I heard, the poems I recited awakened something big inside me; they stirred the mystery. I wanted to be in the presence of that wonder. I soon realized it was contagious and by writing I could share it with others. The Center for Fiction also traffics in this wonder. Many of us go there and feel the same stirring we’ve experienced when we read great stories and aspire to write them.”

Our deepest gratitude to the esteemed writers Edwidge Danticat and Cleyvis Natera for sharing such wonderful testimonials about Julia Alvarez’s impact. Swipe to read their statements in full and learn more about the award at tinyurl.com/2026LEFA.

Play with perspective in our upcoming virtual workshop, I, You, They: Mastering Point of View with Philip Anderson. http...
07/28/2026

Play with perspective in our upcoming virtual workshop, I, You, They: Mastering Point of View with Philip Anderson. https://tinyurl.com/y6svd6by

Participants will consider the different strengths and uses of various points of view and experiment with voice by writing stories in first-person, second-person, and various iterations of third-person to establish the right POV for the story they want to tell. The course will also include 2-3 student workshops.

OUTLINE
📓 Session 1: Omniscient third
📓 Session 2: Close third and free-indirect
📓 Session 3: Second and epistolary
📓 Session 4: First-person reflective
📓 Session 5: Unreliable first-person

This course starts soon, so register ASAP! https://tinyurl.com/y6svd6by

We'll see you soon!
07/28/2026

We'll see you soon!

Whether they're mid-career or making their debut, writing in English or translated from another language, the authors in...
07/25/2026

Whether they're mid-career or making their debut, writing in English or translated from another language, the authors in Melanie’s book recommendations this week are expert storytellers. Read what she says about each in full tinyurl.com/4f2rpcez.

📖 BEGINNING MIDDLE END (Alfred A. Knopf) by Valeria Luiselli: “Luiselli’s stunning new novel about finding one’s home has echoes of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’.”

📖 IT WILL COME BACK TO YOU (Riverhead Books) by Sigrid Nunez: “These superb inquiries into families and their endless dynamics are emotionally perceptive and moving.”

📖 THE SIMP (Simon & Schuster) by Roshan Sethi: “This appealing debut is a hilarious send-up of elite Hollywood players and their outrageous lifestyles, building to a dark twist.”

📖 I MADE YOU UP INSIDE MY HEAD (Riverhead Books) by Marta Pérez-Carbonell, translated from the Spanish by Rosalind Harvey: “Truly compelling.”

📖 SEVEN by Joanna Kavenna (Faber Books): “An adventurous academic romp that will keep you on your toes.”

Address

15 Lafayette Avenue
New York, NY
11217

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 8pm
Tuesday 9am - 8pm
Wednesday 9am - 8pm
Thursday 9am - 8pm
Friday 9am - 8pm
Saturday 9am - 8pm
Sunday 9am - 8pm

Telephone

+12127556710

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Center for Fiction posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to The Center for Fiction:

Shortcuts

Share

Category