I'll be reading from IN THIS RAIN on a bill with two other writers at Brooklyn's coolest literary venue, Sunny's Bar in Red Hook. If you come early, you can go to park by the water and watch the buffleheads bob up and down. Here's the invite, from Gabriel Cohen, who coordinates the readings:


The authors in our March reading have all been making news of late. Novelist Michael Thomas had his debut reviewed favorably on the front page of the New York Times Book Review last week. Two-time Edgar Award winner SJ Rozan just received another nomination. Blake Nelson’s latest novel for young adults is now being turned into a film by Gus Van Sant. And you can find all three of these movers and shakers on one bill, in Sunny’s bar. Come on down!

The March reading will feature:

Blake Nelson
Novelist, author of Girl and Paranoid Park

S.J. Rozan
Novelist, author of In This Rain and Absent Friends

Michael Thomas
Novelist, author of Man Gone Down

Blake Nelson’s first novel Girl has been translated into six languages and was made into a feature film. He published two more adult novels, Exile and User, and then five novels for young adults, including The New Rules of High School and Rockstar Superstar. His latest book is being made into a film by Gus Van Sant. SJ Rozan, a native New Yorker, is the author of nine novels. She has won the the Edgar, Nero, Macavity, Shamus and Anthony awards for Best Novel and the Edgar award for Best Short Story. A former architect in a practice that focused on police stations, firehouses, and zoos, she lives in lower Manhattan. Michael Thomas was born and raised in Boston. He teaches at Hunter College and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three children. Elizabeth Gaffney calls his debut novel Man Gone Down, set largely in south Brooklyn, “brilliant and riveting,” and says that “every page vibrates with love and anger and hope.”

The series, co-sponsored by BookCourt bookstore (www.bookcourt.org) (718-875-3677), will continue on the first Sunday of every month at 3:00 p.m. at Sunny’s, a legendary old bar on the Brooklyn waterfront in Red Hook at 253 Conover Street (between Beard & Reed Streets). You can buy books and get them signed by the authors. Suggested donation: $3. The bar (cash) will be open. Free coffee and Italian pastries and cookies will be provided. Bar telephone (only available when the bar is open): 718-625-8211.

Getting to Sunny's is easy:

By bus: take the B61 toward Red Hook from Atlantic Ave. & Court St. (or from the A train midtrain exit at Jay Street Borough Hall). Get off near the end of the line at Van Brunt & Beard streets., walk 1 block right and 1/2 block left. Or take the B77 bus down 9th Street from Park Slope (or from the Smith and 9th Street F train stop--exit at the rear of the train and come down the stairs to street level and the corner bus stop.) Take the bus in the direction of Van Brunt Street and Red Hook.

If you're driving: From Manhattan, take the Brooklyn Bridge and get off at the Court Street exit--then take a left on Cadman Plaza West, which will turn into Court St. Go about a mile, past Atlantic Avenue, and take a right on Sackett Street. Continue straight for five blocks, across the overpass over the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, and take a left on Van Brunt Street. Continue down almost to the end of Van Brunt (you'll see the waterfront up ahead) and take a right on Reed Street. Go one block and take a right on Conover Street--you'll see a big sign that says BAR. That's Sunny's.

Sunny and I hope to see you at Sunny’s on March 4...

Cheers,

Gabriel Cohen, series coordinator