Author Events for Immigrant Writing Prize Winner Deepak Unnikrishnan

Deepak Unnikrishnan, winner of the inaugural Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing for his debut novel Temporary People, is coming to the States from Abu Dhabi for an author tour. A starred Kirkus review calls the book “An enchanting, unparalleled anthem of displacement and repatriation." Catch him in person at one of these live events:

Author Events

• January 28: Reading Group Choices Book Lovers Extravaganza at Milkweed Books (Minneapolis, MN)
• March 13: Franklin Park Reading Series with Mary Gaitskill and Others (Brooklyn, NY)
• March 14: Greenlight Bookstore Launch Party with Mia Alvar (Brooklyn, NY)
• March 16: City Lights with Shanthi Sekaran (San Francisco, CA)
• March 17: Diesel, A Bookstore with Marie Mutsuki Mockett (Oakland, CA)
• March 19: Skylight Books with David Shook (Los Angeles, CA)
• March 20: Literati Bookstore (Ann Arbor, MI)
• March 21: Writing Program, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
• March 21: Unabridged Bookstore (Chicago, IL)
• March 22: Seminary Co-Op (Chicago, IL)
• March 23: Asian American Writers Workshop with Alexandra Kleeman (New York, NY)
• March 24: NYU (New York, NY)
• August 19: Edinburgh International Book Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK)

Get the Book

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Photo Exhibition at Brown University

After an opening to a warm reception last week, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo's stunning photographs of Havana are on display at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies until January 30, 2015. Whether you're visiting the campus for the first time, passing through Providence, or already attending or teaching at the university, be sure to stop by and see these amazing photos, all of which appear in Pardo Lazo's Abandoned Havana, now out from Restless Books.

Presented by Art at Watson and Brown's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the exhibition is entitled Habaniroshima, mon amour, in reference to the 1959 film Hiroshima, mon amour. Of the exhibition, International Writers Project Fellow Pardo Lazo writes,

In this photo exhibition before the F day, Fidel’s funeral, in this album of absence, as marvelous and bleak as Havana itself, from sly humor to abstract beauty, my lost lens pretends to guide you through the relics and fables of an exhausted Revolution in the waning days of Castro’s Cuba. These are the last pictures ever to be taken by my Canon camera. In the rest of world I am more than blind both to beauty and barbarisms. Stranger, please, pretend to guide me back to where I once belonged and now I long for nevermore.

At the opening, following a slideshow of photos by Pardo Lazo and Silvia Corbelle Batista set to Remo Giazotto's "Adagio in G Minor," Pardo Lazo participated in a Q&A with Brown professor of Hispanic Studies and Comparative Literature Esther Whitfield.

Join Us This Weekend at the Brooklyn Book Festival!

We're excited for the 2014 Brooklyn Book Festival! Read on for info about author appearances, free doughnuts, book signings, a Russian dinner party and more, brought to you by Restless Books. Be sure to stop by BKBF Table #205 this Sunday and say hello! 

Russia is Restless - Friday 9/19

A fabulous evening featuring authors Boris Fishman and Hamid Ismailov, a three-course Russian dinner, a lively conversation about literature and politics, and, of course, vodka.

Location: Karloff Restaurant, 7:00 pm.

Coffee and Doughnuts at Table #205

While supplies last on Sunday at Table #205, we'll be offering Dough Doughnuts and Stumptown Coffee for anyone who signs up for our newsletter. Spread the word!

Hamid Ismailov Book Signing - Sunday 9/19, 2:00 pm

Exiled Uzbek author Hamid Ismailov is making a rare U.S. appearance for the Brooklyn BookFestival. Stop by Table #205 to pick up a limited print edition of The Underground, available at an exclusive festival discount of $15

Location: Table #205, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Family and Home Discussion Panel - Sunday 9/21, 4:00 pm

Three acclaimed authors read from their work and discuss the role of family as a muse and social construct complete with old world ties, immigrant ambition, and parental guilt and self-sacrifice. Tiphanie Yanique (Land of Love and Drowning), Yelena Akhtiorskaya (Panic in a Suitcase), Hamid Ismailov (The Underground). Readings and discussion. Moderated by John Freeman.

Location: Borough Hall Media Room, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn

Imaginary Gardens With Real Robots in Them - Thursday 9/18, 7:00 pm

The Bridge Series in literary translation brings you three prominent translators of science fiction: Ross Benjamin (German), Terry Gallagher (Japanese), andMichael Kandel (Polish). They'll read and discuss their work at 7:00 pm, Thursday at Singularity & Co. bookstore: 18 Bridge St., Brooklyn.

Location: Singularity & Co. Bookstore, 18 Bridge St., Brooklyn, NY 1120