Recently, the Professional Staff Congress, the union of CUNY’s full and part time professors, hosted Writers Against Austerity, a fundraising event featuring 50 acclaimed CUNY professors reading their fiction and poetry to a packed house. This delightful event (and for a good cause!) reminded us of the rare pleasure it is to listen to fabulous writers reading their work out loud.
Luckily for us, New York City has a number of extraordinary spaces writers can go to share their writing, or listen to the work of others. Here are a few of our favorites that might keep you inspired through this seemingly endless stretch till spring break:
This East Village institution features readings almost every evening of the week. We particularly like “Drunken! Careening! Writers!” a reading series based on the proposition that all readings should be by: 1) Good writers; 2) Who read their work well; 3) Something in it makes people laugh (nervous laughter counts). And 15 minutes tops.
The Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House
The beautiful townhouse that is now the NYU Creative Writing House has a long and illustrious legacy: in the mid 19th century it used to host frequent meetings of the celebrated Tile Club, a group of well reputed artists and architects—including Winslow Homer and Stanford White. Luckily for non NYU students, they host a number of really extraordinary public events which anyone can attend, and that the NY Times recently celebrated. For those of you unable to make the readings, they do a wonderful job of archiving them as podcasts on their website.
Ten River Terrace (at Murray Street)
New York, NY 10282
212-431-7920
Poets house is a fairly recent addition to the New York City literary scene- in fact it’s built on landfill that wasn’t even in existence during the hay days of the other two spaces we’ve mentioned, but what it lacks in history, it more than makes up for in other charms. It features an extensive poetry library in a really exquisite bright, clean space overlooking the Hudson River. Poets House also bring some of the worlds greatest contemporary poets to read their work, and in the warmer months they host fun outdoor events.
Next month the fantastic Claudia Rankine will give a talk on her work- Don’t miss it!
Pro tip: this is also a really wonderful peaceful place to hole up and work on your own writing!
