The 12th Annual Fort Greene Summer Literary Festival at BRIC (647 Fulton Street) will be tomorrow, Saturday, August 20th at 2:00 PM. Featured will be young writers (6-18 year olds) reading alongside an electrifying lineup of black women writers whose debut novels are shaking things up in the literary world. The featured readers are Nicole Dennis-Benn (Here Comes the Sun), Kaitlyn Greenidge (We Love You, Charlie Freeman), and Yaa Gyasi (Homegoing). This unique event brings together three of this year’s most talked about young authors with the next generation of literary stars.
The young writers come from NY Writers Coalition’s summer-long series of outdoor creative writing workshops in Fort Greene Park. This dynamic and innovative program provides young writers a safe space to find their voices and explore all genres of creative writing. Watching NYWC Workshop Leader Kaitlyn Greenidge, who has led writing workshops for the program’s youngest writers for the past eight years, will be especially inspiring for the writers who have grown up in the summer program.
This year’s lineup reflects the long overdue recognition of diverse books by Black women authors. Ta-Nehisi Coates said about Yaa Gyasi’s debut, “I think I needed to read a book like this to remember what is possible. I think I needed to remember what happens when you pair a gifted literary mind to an epic task. Homegoing is an inspiration.” Kirkus Reviews wrote of Nicole Dennis-Benn’s Here Comes the Sun, “Haunting and superbly crafted, this is a magical book from a writer of immense talent and intelligence.” All three writers beautifully tap into nuances of history, race, class, and the weight of those on one’s personal relationships.
“Lit Fest and NY Writers Coalition have always been about highlighting the voices that have historically gone unheard, especially here in our city of rich diversity and stunning inequality,” says Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo, coowner of Greenlight Bookstore. “At last, it seems like the literary world is finally starting to catch up. The three young women of color on stage at this year’s Lit Fest are book world stars, having written three of the most highly acclaimed novels of the year. Just like the writers in NYWC’s youth workshops, many of whom are also young people of color, they are setting the world on fire with new stories and new voices. We’re just happy to be here to give a little more oxygen to the flames.”
The 12th Annual Fort Greene Summer Literary Festival is presented by NY Writers Coalition, Akashic Books, and Greenlight Bookstore, with additional support from Con Edison and the office of City Council Member Laurie Cumbo. Space for Lit Fest is generously provided through BRIC’s Stoop Share Program. NYWC’s Fort Greene Summer Youth Program & Literary Festival is generously supported by Amazon Literary Partnership, Bay and Paul Foundations, Con Edison, City Council Member Laurie Cumbo, Kalliopeia Foundation, the Meringoff Family Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and Tiger Baron Foundation. Lit Fest is funded in part by Poets & Writers through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Since its founding in 2002, NYWC has become one of the largest community writing organizations in the country, serving more than 1,200 people last year. NYWC creates opportunities for formerly voiceless members of society to be heard through the art of writing. They provide free, unique and powerful creative writing workshops throughout New York City for people from groups that have been historically deprived of voice within our society, including at-risk and disconnected youth, those who are homeless and formerly homeless, individuals who are incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, war veterans, people living with disabilities, cancer, and other major illnesses, immigrants, seniors, and many others. Over the past 14 years, NYWC has provided more than 7,000 free creative writing workshop sessions all over New York City. Their workshop participants have been featured on The New York Times Blog, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and NY1 Noticias in stories about NYWC. For more information about NYWC’s programs, visit www.nywriterscoalition.org.
Reader Bios:
Nicole Dennis-Benn is the author of Here Comes the Sun, (W. W. Norton/Liveright), which was given a Kirkus Starred Review and is listed among best books to read this year by The New York Times, BuzzFeed, Book Riot, ELLE, Marie Claire, Cosmo, Publishers Weekly, BBC, After Ellen, Bookish, Miami Herald, The Root, and Brooklyn Magazine. Pulitzer Prize finalist, Laila Lalami, deems it a “fantastic debut,” and Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James says “[Here Comes the Sun] is a story waiting to be told.” Nicole has a MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and has been awarded fellowships from Macdowell Colony, Hedgebrook, Lambda, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Hurston/Wright, and Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica and lives with her wife in Brooklyn, NY.
Kaitlyn Greenidge’s debut novel is We Love You, Charlie Freeman (Algonquin Books). Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Elle.com, Buzzfeed, Transition Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, the Believer, American Short Fiction and other places. She is a contributing writer for LENNY Letter. She received her MFA from Hunter College. Originally from Boston, Kaitlyn now lives in Brooklyn.
Yaa Gyasi was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. She holds a BA in English from Stanford University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Dean’s Graduate Research Fellowship. She lives in Berkeley, CA, and her debut novel is Homegoing (Alfred A. Knopf).
Chris Prioleau (Master of Ceremonies) has been in love with NYWC since stumbling upon the Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival in 2011. He earned his MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, where he taught creative writing and helped found Apogee Journal, a journal of art and literature featuring work that explores and challenges identity politics. Chris writes fiction, essays, and sketch comedy. His work has been featured on The Awl and at sketch comedy events throughout the New York City.