Reading Den

Join us on April 29 at Fort Greene for the next installment of the Reading Den series.

The event is free and open to the public, and begins at 7pm. We are no longer requiring free registration for our events. Just show up and enjoy the readings and community.

Pardeep Toor is the winner of the PEN American Dau Prize, and his writing has appeared in the Best Debut Short Stories 2021, Southern Humanities Review, Electric Literature, Midwest Review, and Longreads. He grew up in Brampton, Ontario, and currently lives in Colorado.

Josiah Hesse, author of On Fire for God, Runner’s High, and the Carnality series, is a freelance journalist out of Denver, Colorado, covering everything from politics, science, and crime, to art, pop culture, and evangelical culture and theology. A regular contributor to The Guardian and Vice, his work has appeared in Esquire, Newsweek, Men’s Health, and Politico, among other publications.

Diane Botnick was born and raised in Akron, Ohio, but always knew she’d wind up in New York City. Her first night in Greenwich Village she went to a double feature of Godard’s “Weekend” and Wiseman’s “Titicut Follies,” and her romance with the city began. For the next 30 years, Diane worked around, starting out in Italy assisting people like Jerome Robbins and Ellen Stewart with their contributions to the Spoleto Festival, then back in the City for the Dia Art Foundation, Isamu Noguchi, Great Performances at WNET, and finally, Workman Publishing. Along the way, she returned to school in pursuit of a Masters in Creative Writing at City College. Fulfilling all requirements but unable to pass the French exam (with a dictionary!), she was never awarded her diploma. However, the privilege of being mentored by Donald Barthelme and being appointed student editor of the literary magazine FICTION gave her far more than a diploma ever could.

Lauren Camp is the author of numerous poetry collections. She was the Astronomer-in-Residence at Grand Canyon National Park, served as New Mexico Poet Laureate from 2022-25, and founded the New Mexico Epic Poem Project. Honors include fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and Black Earth Institute, a Dorset Prize, a Glenna Luschei Award from Prairie Schooner, and finalist citations for the Arab American Book Award and Adrienne Rich Award. Her poems have been translated into Mandarin, Turkish, Spanish, French, and Arabic.