We are thrilled to bring you the latest in literary events that have caught our attention. These events encompass a range of free and ticketed registration and are not affiliated with AWP. All times are in ET.

Tuesday, August 23

7 p.m.— Old Town Books presents the August installment of Murder by the Book Club featuring House Across the Lake by Riley Sager. The novel follows a widowed actress who retreats to a lake house to escape scrutinizing media attention and later becomes entangled in the lives of her neighbors. This event offers free registration and will take place online.

Wednesday, August 24

7:30 p.m.— Elliot Bay Book Company and Green Apple Books present the American debut of dead-end memories by Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Asa Yoneda. Originally published in Japan in 2003, dead-end memories tells the stories of five women recovering from painful and traumatic events. Yoshimoto’s work has been translated in more than thirty countries and this will be her eleventh novel translated into English. This event offers free registration and will take place online.

8 p.m.— The Austin Public Library will be hosting a Virtual Older Adult Book Club. In this session, participants should arrive ready to discuss The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson. This event offers free registration and will take place online.

Thursday, August 25

6:30—7:30 p.m.— Join novelist, educator, and editor Tina McElroy Ansa in conjunction with Sea Island Writer’s Retreat for The Magic of Writing, a lecture focused on the dutiful work that goes into thoughtful and thorough writing. Learn the basics of writing, how to write and think like a professional, and how to create something magical. This event will take place online and offers free registration. 

8 p.m.— Copperfield Books welcomes author Joyce Carol Oats as she discusses her new book Babysitter in conversation with Dean Nelson. Babysitter deals with love, deceit, and redemption happening against the backdrop of child murders taking place in an affluent neighborhood of Detroit. Thrilling and suspenseful, Babysitter calls into question the negative consequences of leading a double life, and what measures must be taken to protect the ones you love. This event offers free registration and will take place online.

Saturday, August 27

2 p.m.— A Novel Idea and Mason Jar Press present An Afternoon of Poetry and Prose featuring seven amazing writers. Authors in attendance include Caroline Bock, Taiwo Hassan, Letitia Despina, BEE LB, Tiffany Promise, Corinna Schulenberg, and Ashish Kumar Singh. The organizers of this event ask that attendees make a small donation for admittance. This event will take place online.

1:00 p.m.— Join Speak the Word as they host yet another Open Mic Night! Five-minute slots are available and will be assigned the night of. Registration is free, and this event will take place online.

Tuesday, August 30

2—3:30 p.m.—The National Association of Scholars presents The Great American Literature Series: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. Join Candace Waid, Carol Singley, Sheila Liming, and David Randall as they discuss just what it is that makes Edith Wharton one of the great American novelists. This event offers free registration and will take place online.

Thursday, September 1

7:30 p.m.— Greenlight Bookstore welcomes the Women of Color Writers Workshop and their “Write to Read” Series. Attend to hear a virtual reading and see a live performance that includes work from WOC writers nation-wide. Registration is free, and this event will premier online.

Tuesday, September 6

4—5 p.m.— Preservation North Carolina presents Shelter Series: Carolina Built, the story of Josephine Leary by Kianna Alexander. Carolina Built is a historical novel that follows the real factual of Josephine Leary, the African American entrepreneur behind the 1984 J.N. Leary Building located in Edenton, North Carolina. Follow Leary’s story as she rises from plantation beginnings and becomes a mother, homemaker, and businesswoman in the turn-of-the-century South. This event offers free registration and will take place online.

7:30 p.m.— Join Major Jackson as he presents A Beat Beyond in conversation with Amor Kohli. A Beat Beyond is a work composed of essays, interviews, and notes that Major Jackson has collected over the course of decades. This collection documents radical shifts in art and makes mention of poetry as a modern necessity. This event offers free registration and will take place online.

Wednesday, September 7

12—1 p.m.— NYU’s Continuing Education program will be hosting Condemned: A Book Talk with Translator Susan Matthias. Condemned was originally published in Greek in 1919 by author Konstantinos Theotokis and has since been translated into English by Susan Matthias and her husband, the late Miltiades Matthias. In this universal tale of social justice, a man has been falsely imprisoned for a murder he did not commit. Tune in to find out more about both the novel and Matthias’ experience as a translator. Registration is free, and this event will take place online.

Sunday, September 11

12—2 p.m.— Crow Collective Workshops presents ERASING WOR[L]DS: Erasure, Blackout, & Cut-Up Eco-Poetry taught by JP Seabright. Explore examples and methods of Dada poetry and examine figures such as Burroughs and Bowie in this creative writing workshop. This workshop will focus on applying these techniques and lenses to environmental and ecopolitical poetry. Registration is free, and this event will take place online.