Queens in Love with Literature (QUILL)

That would be Queens, the borough of New York City. On last year's census forms the residents of Queens reported speaking 138 different languages, and experts say the number of languages spoken there is actually much higher. Apropos of this statistic, Queens in Love with Literature (QUILL, a literary initiative of the Queens Council on the Arts) will be concentrating this year on literature written in languages other than English and on the art of translation. QUILL was founded to create a greater sense of literary community among writers and translators based in Queens, and to this end, QUILL will be hosting a series of readings/mixers and other events all year, as well as (drum roll) offering a new translation prize, the QUILL Translation Award. Details of the award will be made public tomorrow at the first event in the series: Love Queens Style, a Poetry Fair & Mixer, co-hosted in Long Island City by QUILL and Queens Art Express (QAX). The event will feature Queens Poet Laureate Paolo Javier as MC, along with love-themed readings by Richard Jeffrey Newman, Roger Sedarat and myself. There'll be raffle prizes, too, including a signed copy of my translation of Jenny Erpenbeck's BTBA-nominated novel Visitation. To check it out, come to Bread Box Cafe, located near the first Queens stops on either the 7 or E trains. The address: 47-11-11th St., Long Island City, Queens. The time: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
I'll be reading both from Visitation and from my novel-in-progress The Year We Drowned.
Queens in Love with Literature (QUILL) is funded by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Hope to see you there!