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Speakers

Anna Badkhen is the author of seven published books. Her latest book, Bright Unbearable Reality (NYRB, 2022), is an essay collection. Her awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barry Lopez Visiting Writer in Ethics and Community Fellowship, and the Joel R. Seldin Award from Psychologists for Social Responsibility for writing about civilians in war zones. She has written from a dozen war zones on four continents. Her essays and short fiction appear in periodicals and literary magazines such as the New York Review of Books, Granta, The Common, Scalawag, Harper's, the Paris Review, and the New York Times. Badkhen was born in the Soviet Union and is a US citizen. 

Angie Cruz is an award-winning novelist and editor. How Not To Drown in A Glass of Water is her fourth novel, Dominicanawon numerous honors including being selected as the inaugural book pick for GMA book club and  shortlisted for The Women’s Prize, longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction, and winning the ALA/YALSA Alex Award in fiction. Cruz is the author of two other novels, Soledad and Let It Rain Coffee and the recipient of numerous fellowships and residencies. She's the founder and Editor-in-chief of the award winning literary journal, Aster(ix)  and divides her time between Pittsburgh, New York and Turin. 

Joseph O'Neill is the author of four novels, most recently The Dog (2014), which was longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the PG Wodehouse Prize, and Netherland (2008), which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Kerry Fiction Prize. He has also written a book of short stories, Good Trouble (2018) and a family history, Blood-Dark Track, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize.  His stories have appeared in the New Yorker and Harper's, and his political and literary essays in the New York Review of Books, the Atlantic, the Guardian, and other publications. Joseph is of Irish-Turkish parentage, grew up mainly in The Netherlands, worked as a lawyer in London, and for many years has lived in New York. He teaches at Bard College. 

Chinelo Okparanta’s story collection HAPPINESS, LIKE WATER and her novel UNDER THE UDALA TREES have won and been nominated for numerous awards, including the Lambda Literary Award, O. Henry Prize, International Dublin Literary Award, Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award, NAACP Image Award, Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and New York Public Library Young Lions Award, among other honors; her most recent novel, HARRY SYLVESTER BIRD, was published by HarperCollins/Mariner in July 2022. 

Monica Sok is the author of A Nail the Evening Hangs On (Copper Canyon Press, 2020). She has received fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Hedgebrook, Jerome Foundation, Kundiman, National Endowment for the Arts, the Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, and others. Her work has been recognized with a "Discovery" Prize from 92Y. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Paris Review, POETRY, Kenyon Review, and New Republic, among others. Sok recently taught poetry as a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University and the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants in Oakland, CA.

Please note: Angie Cruz was not able to join us for this event and instead were pleased to be joined by author Monica Sok.