Reading series draws Lethem, Wolitzer to Houston
Houston’s creative writing organization InPrint on Monday announced authors for its esteemed Margarett Root Brown Reading Series’ 2018-19 season. Among the authors whose names are preceded by phrases like “best-selling” and “award-winning” are Jonathan Lethem and Barbara Kingsolver.
Lethem — an acclaimed novelist and essayist — will read on Nov. 12, a week after his new novel “The Feral Detective” publishes. Longtime readers may be excited to learn the book finds Lethem returning to the detective novel construct for the first time since his breakthrough, “Motherless Brooklyn,” in 1999.
Kingsolver, whose eye is often pulled to topical and global stories, comes to Houston with “Unsheltered,” her first novel in six years.
InPrint’s 2018-19 season
opens Sept. 24 with Esi Edugyan and Meg Wolitzer. Canadian novelist Edugyan was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for “Half-Blood Blues” in 2011. Her third novel, “Washington Black,” will be published this September. Wolitzer’s latest novel is “The Female Persuasion,” a thorny look at gender and mentorship. One of Wolitzer’s earlier works, “The Wife,” also was recently made into a feature film that should be in Houston theaters later this summer.
The season concludes April 22 with Tayari Jones, whose “An American Marriage” was published earlier this year and was picked for Oprah’s Book Club. Also on the bill April 22 is Richard Powers, whose “The Overstory” is a near-indescribable story about humankind and trees. Yes, trees.
InPrint also will host two events in its Cool Brains! Series for young readers. Girl Scouts of the USA CEO and rocket scientist Sylvia Acevedo will read from her memoir “Path to the Stars” on Sept. 16 at the Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School.
And on Nov. 4, Newbery Honor winner Jason Reynolds will read from “Lu, (Track Book 4).”
InPrint season tickets go on sale Aug. 1. More information on InPrint and its season can be found at inprinthouston.org.