Magdalena Waz

@ThrowBigWords

Summer months are for discovery, whether that means discovering new beaches or discovering new restaurants. And over the next few months at Nowadays, you’ll also be able to discover new authors as part of a season series organized by H.I.P Lit.

The first event in the series took place on June 26, a balmy, buggy Monday where four writers shared portions of new books and works in progress to a large, engaged crowd in the corner of the sprawling outdoor venue. The writers told stories ranging from historical fiction to memoir with a healthy dose of humor and empathy.

Britt Canty, co-founder and curator at H.I.P. Lit, says that the organization’s goal with this new series is “having a literary event that is approachable” where you don’t have to be part of the in-crowd in order to enjoy some topnotch storytelling.

In fact, H.I.P Lit was founded by Canty, Erin Harris, and Kim Perel as a way to “combine our mutual love for literature and for advocating on the part of writers,” says Canty. All three women are now in publishing even though they met as creative writing graduate students at The New School.

This particular outdoor series will run for three more Mondays: July 17, July 31, and August 7 with an emphasis on names you may not have heard yet but should be hearing soon.

July 17 readers include Deirdre Coyle, Kyle Lucia Wu, Hannah Lillith Assadi, Emmanuel Iduma, and David Burr Gerrard. Some have not yet released first books, so you could be listening to excerpts that will transform into next summer’s best sellers.



Featured image of Chris Wolfe courtesy of Britt Canty.