An Urbane Metamorphosis: A Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend Event

RSVP REQUIRED

Join us for a transformative night of readings from M Lin, Tyler Wetherall, Jasmine Mans, and Rachel Lyon. Taylor & Co. will have books for sale. Also, enjoy music from Existential DJ Skye Cleary, themed cocktails, and an art show from Katie Kuzin. Once a speakeasy, and later, a place of worship, the walls of this Victorian mansion have borne witness to over a hundred years of togetherness and beauty. Come for the magical setting, stay for the creative works and warm company, and watch as the night is metamorphosed into an unforgettable experience!

Katie Kuzin is an abstract artist from the vibrant art scene of New York City. With her unique style and innovative approach, she has garnered recognition and acclaim in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, showcasing her works at art shows including at Maison 10, the Hamptons Fine Art Fair: Art Affair, Tanya Weddemire Gallery, and Windham Fine Arts Gallery. Her paintings have found homes in collections spanning the United States and abroad.

Skye C. Cleary is a philosopher and existential DJ. She is the author of How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment and other books.

Jasmine Mans is a queer Black poet and performance artist from Newark, New Jersey. Jasmine’s debut poetry collection, Black Girl, Call Home (Berkley Penguin Random House) published in 2021 to critical and commercial acclaim, and was named one of the most anticipated books of the season by Oprah, TIME, Vogue, Vulture, Essence, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Refinery 29, Shondaland, Bustle, and Reader’s Digest. The collection went on to receive the prestigious Stonewall Honor Award, as well as a BCALA Award in the Poetry category. Jasmine lives in Newark, New Jersey, where she operates her award-winning business Buy Weed from Women, a cannabis multimedia and product company celebrating and advocating for women within the cannabis industry. The Buy Weed from Women book was acquired at auction by DK, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and will publish in 2026.

M Lin is a Chinese writer living in the US. Born and raised in Beijing, she writes in English as her second language. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College and a BFA in Film from New York University. Her short story collection, The Memory Museum, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press, including stories that have appeared in Ploughshares, swamp pink, Joyland, Epiphany, and Best Debut Short Stories 2023 (Catapult). Her nonfiction can be read in The New York Times, Guernica, and elsewhere.

Rachel Lyon is the author of Self-Portrait with Boy, a finalist for the Center for Fiction's 2018 First Novel Prize, and Fruit of the Dead. Her short work has appeared in One Story, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. A creative writing instructor for various institutions, most recently Bennington College, Rachel has been appointed the 2024 Paris Writer in Residence by the Paris School of Arts and Culture, the American University of Paris, and the Centre Culturel Irlandais. She lives with her husband and two young children in Western Massachusetts.

Tyler Wetherall is an author and journalist. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, British Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic, and the Guardian, amongst others. Her first book, No Way Home: A Memoir of Life on the Run, followed her childhood as the daughter of an international pot smuggler and federal fugitive. Amphibian is her debut novel, set in the West Country of England where she grew up. She now lives in Brooklyn with her husband.

We’re proud to be an official 2024 Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend event. Bookend events––in person in all five boroughs and online––run from September 24th through 30th, and are a vital part of the Brooklyn Book Festival’s mission to present programming that is hip, smart, diverse, and inclusive for NYC and beyond. We hope you can join us this weekend in Downtown Brooklyn––the Brooklyn Book Festival Children’s Day is Saturday, from 10am-4pm, and the Festival Day & Literary Marketplace is on Sunday, from 10am-6pm. Pick up a festival guide, or visit brooklybookfestival.org for more info.