Gabriela Garcia is the author of the novel Of Women and Salt, forthcoming from Flatiron (US), Picador (UK), and in eight other languages.  Her fiction and poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Tin House, Zyzzyva, Iowa Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Cincinnati Review, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. She received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, a Steinbeck Fellowship, and residencies and fellowships from Breadloaf, Sarabande Books, Lighthouse Works, the Keller Estate, and the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. She has a BA in Sociology from Fordham University and an MFA in fiction from Purdue University, where she also taught creative writing. The daughter of immigrants from Cuba and Mexico, Gabriela was raised in Miami and currently lives in the Bay Area. She is a long-time feminist and migrant justice organizer who has also worked in music and magazines.         Wendy Xu is a poet, editor, and professor, most recently the author of Phrasis, named one of the 10 Best Poetry Books of 2017 by the New York Times Book Review. Her debut collection You Are Not Dead (2013), was named by Poets & Writers Magazine as one of the year’s Top 10 debuts. Xu was awarded the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry in 2011, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation in 2014, and her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, Granta, Tin House, Poetry, The New Republic, Ploughshares, Conjunctions, and widely elsewhere. Born in Shandong, China, she holds an MFA from the Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She has been on creative writing faculty at the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Columbia University, New York University, and is currently Assistant Professor of Writing (Poetry) at The New School in New York City. She lives in Brooklyn, and serves as Poetry Editor for the arts magazine Hyperallergic. A new book of poetry, The Past, will be published Sept 7th, 2021 by Wesleyan.

Katie Kitamura is the author of Gone To The Forest and The Longshot, both finalists for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. Her third novel, A Separation, was a New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the Premio von Rezzori. It was named a Best Book of the Year by over a dozen publications, translated into sixteen languages, and is being adapted for film. Her new novel, Intimacies, is forthcoming from Riverhead Books in 2021. A recipient of fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and Santa Maddalena, Katie has written for publications including The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, BOMB, Triple Canopy, and Frieze. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.           Darin Strauss is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Chang and Eng, The Real McCoy, More Than it Hurts You, the NBCC-winning memoir, Half a Life, the comic-book series, Olivia Twist, and most recently the acclaimed novel, The Queen of Tuesday: A Lucille Ball Story (Random House, 2020). A recipient of a National Book Critics Circle Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Library Association Award, and numerous other prizes, Strauss has written screenplays for Disney, Gary Oldman, and Julie Taymor. His work has been translated into fourteen languages and published in nineteen countries, and he is a Clinical Professor at the NYU Creative Writing Program.

Joshua Henkin's most recent novel, MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, was published in June of 2021. It was selected by the American Booksellers Association as the #1 Indie Next Pick and was named an Editors' Choice Book by The New York Times. Joshua is also the author of the novels SWIMMING ACROSS THE HUDSON, a Los Angeles Times Notable Book; MATRIMONY, a New York Times Notable Book; and THE WORLD WITHOUT YOU, which was named an Editors' Choice Book by The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune and was the winner of the 2012 Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish American Fiction and a finalist for the 2012 National Jewish Book Award. Joshua lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and daughters and their huge Newfoundland, and he directs and teaches in the MFA program in Fiction Writing at Brooklyn College.        Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s new collection of short stories, American Estrangement, was published in August by W. W. Norton. He is the author of a memoir, When Skateboards Will Be Free, selected as one of the ten best books of the year by Dwight Garner of The New York Times, and the story collection, Brief Encounters With the Enemy,  a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Fiction Prize. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Best American Short Stories, Granta, McSweeney’s, The New York Times, and New American Stories, among other publications. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award for nonfiction and a Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers’ fiction fellowship. Saïd lives in New York City with his wife, the artist Karen Mainenti, and serves on the board of directors for the New York Foundation for the Arts. He is a fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities and teaches creative writing at Columbia University, Hunter College and New York University, where he received an Outstanding Teaching Award.          Darin Strauss is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Chang and Eng, The Real McCoy, More Than it Hurts You, the NBCC-winning memoir, Half a Life, the comic-book series, Olivia Twist, and most recently the acclaimed novel, The Queen of Tuesday: A Lucille Ball Story (Random House, 2020). A recipient of a National Book Critics Circle Award, the Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Library Association Award, and numerous other prizes, Strauss has written screenplays for Disney, Gary Oldman, and Julie Taymor. His work has been translated into fourteen languages and published in nineteen countries, and he is a Clinical Professor at the NYU Creative Writing Program.

Dario Diofebi was born in Rome, Italy in 1987. After a BA and an MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Rome, he was a professional online poker player from ages 22 to 26. After that, he was a traveling high-stakes live poker player for another three years, mostly based in Las Vegas. He quit the game to pursue writing, and received an MFA from the NYU Creative Writing Program. Paradise, Nevada (Bloomsbury, 2021) is his first novel. He lives in Brooklyn, NY, and Rome.   Emma Hine is the author of the debut poetry collection Stay Safe, which received the Kathryn A. Morton Prize and was published by Sarabande Books in January 2021. Poems from this collection have appeared in The Offing, The Paris Review, and The Southern Review, among other publications, and her essays have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Guernica, and Poets & Writers. Hine received an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from New York University, and in 2020 she co-founded Debut Revue, a virtual reading series celebrating debut poetry collections. She currently serves as the Communications Manager at the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP).     Silvina López Medin was born in Buenos Aires and lives in Croton on Hudson, New York. She has published five books of poetry including Excursion (Oversound Chapbook Prize, 2020), and That Salt on the Tongue to Say Mangrove (translated by Jasmine V. Bailey, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2021). Her hybrid book Poem That Never Ends (2021) was a winner of the Essay Press/University of Washington Bothell Contest. She co-translated Anne Carson’s Eros the Bittersweet into Spanish. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Hyperallergic, Brooklyn Rail, Harriet Books/Poetry Foundation, and MoMA/post, among others. She holds an MFA in Poetry from NYU and is an editor at Ugly Duckling Presse.      Melissa Lozada-Oliva is the author of peluda (Button Poetry 2017) and Dreaming of You (Astra House 2021). Her work has been featured in The Yale Review, Harper's Bazaar, Breakbeat Poets, Redivider Magazine, Audible and more. She co-hosts a podcast called Say More and lives in Brooklyn.       Natasha Rao is a poet and educator from New Jersey. Her debut collection, Latitude, was selected by Ada Limón as the winner of the 2021 APR/Honickman First Book Prize. The recipient of a 2021 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship, she has received support from Bread Loaf, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, and she was named a 2021 Djanikian Scholar by The Adroit Journal. Her work appears or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, The Nation, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. She holds a BA from Brown University and an MFA from NYU, where she was a Goldwater Fellow. She is currently a managing editor of American Chordata and lives in Brooklyn.     Clare Sestanovich is an editor at The New Yorker and the author of the short-story collection "Objects of Desire," published by Knopf. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Harper's, and Electric Literature.

Farah Ali is from Pakistan. Her work has been anthologized in the 2020 Pushcart Prize as well as received special mention in the 2018 Pushcart anthology. Her stories have appeared in Shenandoah, The Arkansas International, The Southern Review, Kenyon Review online, Copper Nickel, Ecotone, The Colorado Review, and elsewhere. People Want to Live (McSweeney's Books, fall 2021) is her first collection.        Courtney Zoffness won the 2018 Sunday Times Short Story Award, the largest international prize for short fiction, amid entries from 38 countries. Other honors include fellowships from The Center for Fiction and MacDowell. Her writing has appeared in the Paris Review Daily, the New York Times, The Southern Review, Guernica, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Spilt Milk (McSweeney's Books, spring 2021), her nonfiction debut, was named a “must-read” book by Publishers Weekly, LitHub, The Millions, Refinery29, Good Morning America, and others. Zoffness directs the creative writing program at Drew University, and lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

This is the first event of our NYU Emerging Writers Reading Series, traditionally organized by our graduate students and held at KGB Bar. Each reading will feature four MFA students (from a mix of genres) reading alongside an established author. This reading will feature Chen Chen, with graduate student readers Cai Rodrigues-Sherley, Matt Tuckner, E Yeon Chang, and Hannah Seidlitz       陳琛 / Chen Chen’s second book of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is forthcoming from BOA Editions in Sept. 2022. His debut, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. In 2019 Bloodaxe Books published the UK edition. Chen is also the author of four chapbooks and the forthcoming book of essays, In Cahoots with the Rabbit God (Noemi Press, 2023). His work appears/is forthcoming in many publications, including Poem-a-Day and three editions of The Best American Poetry (2015, 2019, & 2021). He has received two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from Kundiman and the National Endowment for the Arts. He teaches at Brandeis University as the Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence and serves on the poetry faculty for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College and Stonecoast. With a brilliant team, he edits the journal, Underblong. With Gudetama the lazy egg, he edits the lickety~split. He lives in Waltham, MA with his partner, Jeff Gilbert and their pug, Mr. Rupert Giles.

Join the NYU Creative Writing Program and Kundiman in celebrating Rohan Chhetri's Lost, Hurt or in Transit Beautiful. Lost, Hurt, or in Transit Beautiful received the 2018 Kundiman Poetry Prize, dedicated to publishing exceptional work by Asian American poets. This exceptional collection re-envisions poetic form while exploring identity, artistic tradition, and the limitations of language upon the imagination. Rohan Chhetri will be joined by Purvi Shah and Duy Doan for a beautiful evening of poetry.      Rohan Chhetri is a writer and translator based in Houston. He is the author of Slow Startle (Winner of the Emerging Poets Prize 2015), and Lost, Hurt, or in Transit Beautiful (Winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize). A recipient of a 2021 PEN/Heim Grant for translation, his poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Revue Europe, AGNI and New England Review, and have been translated into Greek and French.      Purvi Shah’s favorite art practices are her sparkly eyeshadow, raucous laughter, and seeking justice. She won the inaugural SONY South Asian Social Service Excellence Award for her leadership fighting violence against women. Her new book, Miracle Marks, explores women, the sacred, and gender & racial equity. With artist Anjali Deshmukh, she creates interactive art at https://circlefor.com/. Their participatory project, Missed Fortunes, documented experiences, celebrations, and pandemic rituals to create poetry and visual art, connection, and a community archive for healing. You can see and purchase the art prints at https://tiny.one/circlefor. Find more @PurviPoets.     Duy Doan (pronounced zwee dwän) is the author of We Play a Game, winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize and a Lambda Literary Award. Duy is Vietnamese American and is a Kundiman fellow.

Kaveh Akbar's poems appear in The New Yorker, Paris Review, The New York Times, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the author of two books of poetry—Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf 2021) and Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James 2017)—and the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse. Born in Tehran, Iran, Kaveh teaches at Purdue University and in the low-residency MFA programs at Randolph and Warren Wilson college. He serves as Poetry Editor for The Nation.          Carey Salerno serves as the executive editor & executive director of Alice James Books, winner of the 2021 Golden Colophon Award for Independent Paradigm Publishing from CLMP, the Community of Literary Magazines and Publishers. She is the author of Tributary (2021), Shelter (2009), and a co-editor of Lit From Inside: 40 Years of Poetry from Alice James Books (2013). She teaches publishing arts and poetry writing for the University of Maine at Farmington and is a frequent guest of writing programs, conferences, festivals, where she conducts consultations and delivers talks on publishing arts, editing, poetry, manuscript compilation, and other topics. She has a book of literary criticism related to publishing arts in progress. You may find her essays, poems–and articles and interviews regarding her literary and publishing work–in print and online, including in NPR, Poets & Writers, and American Poetry Review.      

This is the second event of our NYU Emerging Writers Reading Series this semester, coordinated by a team of our graduate students and traditionally held at KGB Bar. These events this semester will instead be held at the Lillian Vernon Writers House. Each reading will feature four MFA students (from a mix of genres) reading alongside an established author. This reading will feature Nadia Owusu with graduate student readers Will Goodwin, Sophia Cornell, Stephanie Newman, and Vincent Tolentino.            Nadia Owusu is a Ghanaian and Armenian-American writer and urbanist. She was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and raised in Italy, Ethiopia, England, Ghana, and Uganda. Her first book, Aftershocks, A Memoir, topped many most-anticipated and best book of the year lists, including The New York Times, The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, TIME, Vulture, and the BBC. It was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. Nadia is the recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award. Her lyric essay, So Devilish a Fire won the Atlas Review chapbook contest. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Times, The Lily, Orion, Granta, The Paris Review Daily, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Catapult, Bon Appétit, Travel + Leisure, and others. By day, Nadia is the Director of Storytelling at Frontline Solutions, a Black-owned consulting firm that helps social-change organizations to define goals, execute plans, and evaluate impact. She is a graduate of Pace University (BA) and Hunter College (MS). She earned her MFA in creative nonfiction at the Mountainview low-residency program where she now teaches. She lives in Brooklyn.

This is the third and final event of our NYU Emerging Writers Reading Series this semester, coordinated by a team of our graduate students and traditionally held at KGB Bar. These events this semester will instead be held at the Lillian Vernon Writers House. This reading will feature Amber Sparks, with graduate student readers Evan Cerniglia, Darrian Hopson, Thea Matthews, and Marissa Perino. Amber Sparks is the author of the story collections The Unfinished World, May We Shed These Human Bodies, and And I Do Not Forgive You. Her essays and fiction can be found widely in print and online, in places like The Paris Review, New York Magazine, Granta, and Tin House.