This morning, Monday, August 16: The Library is open as usual, but our phones and internet are temporarily down. Please check Marginalia on our website for status updates. We apologize for the inconvenience.
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Beginning Tuesday, September 7, the Library will be open
- Mondays 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
- Tuesdays 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
- Wednesdays 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
- Thursdays 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
- Fridays 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
- Saturdays 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
- Sundays 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
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What book (story, poem...) inspires you to make a difference in the world? New, old, fiction, nonfiction all welcome. ADD YOUR ANSWER HERE.
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We're excited to be presenting in-person events beginning in October. All individuals attending in-person Members’ Room or Whitridge Room events will be required to show proof of vaccination (Excelsior Pass, vaccination card, photo of vaccination card) at check-in. Please note that we continue to monitor all the news about COVID-19, and we reserve the right to make changes to any or all events including postponement, cancelation, or a change to livestreaming only. Registrants will be contacted as far in advance as possible in the case of any such change.
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CONVERSATION | LIVESTREAM | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Hilma Wolitzer, Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket: Stories, in conversation with Meg Wolitzer
Thursday, September 9, 6:00 PM
$10 per person | registration required
The Boston Globe has called Hilma Wolitzer an "American literary treasure." Here she discusses her new volume of uncannily relevant, deliciously clear-eyed collected stories with beloved novelist Meg Wolitzer.
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CHILDREN'S EVENT | LIVESTREAM | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Alan Gratz, Ground Zero
Monday, September 13, 2:00 PM
free of charge | presented by the Center for Fiction - Kids Read | registration required
In his new novel Ground Zero, bestselling author Alan Gratz weaves together a tale of two devastating days in modern world history, separated by exactly 18 years.
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SEMINAR | ONLINE | FOR MEMBERS ONLY
Two Great Portuguese-Language Novelists, with Nicholas Birns
Wednesdays, September 22, October 13, November 3, November 17, 11:00 AM
on the Zoom Meetings platform | $60 for the four sessions | registration required
This seminar looks at two of the most renowned novelists in the Portuguese language, José Saramago and Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (pictured).
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CONVERSATION | LIVESTREAM | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, The Personal Librarian: A Novel
Thursday, September 23, 6:00 PM
free of charge | registration required
A remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.
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CONVERSATION | LIVESTREAM | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Dantiel W. Moniz, Milk Blood Heat, and Deesha Philyaw, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
Tuesday, September 28, 6:00 PM
$10 per person | registration required
A one-of-a-kind conversation between rising star fiction writers Deesha Philyaw (2020 Pen/Faulkner Award winner) and Dantiel W. Moniz (“a gorgeous debut” - Lauren Groff).
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LECTURE | LIVESTREAM | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Farah Jasmine Griffin, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature
Thursday, September 30, 6:00 PM
free of charge | registration required
The brilliant scholar who served as guest curator for the Library's Black Literature Matters exhibition imparts the lessons bequeathed by the Black community and its remarkable artists and thinkers. This event is by-invitation for Members' Room seats; the livestream is free and open to the public, with registration required.
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LECTURE | MEMBERS' ROOM and LIVESTREAM | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Thomas Dyja, New York, New York, New York: Four Decades of Success, Excess, and Transformation
Thursday, October 7, 6:00 PM
Members' Room: $15 per person
Livestream: $10 per person
New York’s terrifying, if liberating, state of nature in 1978 also made it the capital of American culture. Over the next thirty-plus years, though, it became a different place. Thomas Dyja’s critically acclaimed account shows how this metamorphosis was, in large part, the story of New Yorkers from the poorest outsiders to the Masters of the Universe.
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THE WRITING LIFE | ONLINE | FOR MEMBERS ONLY
Prompt! Fall 2021
Fridays, October 8, November 12, December 10, 11:00 AM (separate sessions)
on the Zoom Meetings platform | free of charge | registration required
Come write with us on Friday mornings. Join your fellow member writers for a fun and stimulating hour and a half of prompts, writing, and sharing. Sessions are separate - attend any or all.
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THE WRITING LIFE | MEMBERS' ROOM | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Live from the Library, Fall 2021
Thursday, October 14, 6:00 PM
$15 per person | registration required
Live from the Library returns to the Members' Room! Library members read from their own short stories, novels, poetry, criticism, memoir, and plays. Refreshments and wine will be served.
Readings are limited to five minutes or less, and readers must be current Library members. For a reading slot, contact Carolyn Waters.
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LECTURE | LIVESTREAM | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Joseph J. Ellis, The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773-1783
Monday, October 18, 6:00 PM
$10 per person | registration required
A culminating work on the American Founding by one of its leading historians, The Cause rethinks the American Revolution as we have known it.
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NEW YORK CITY BOOK AWARDS LECTURE | MEMBERS' ROOM and LIVESTREAM | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Johanna Fernández, The Young Lords: A Radical History
Thursday, October 21, 6:00 PM
free of charge
The 2020 New York City Book Award-winning author presents her definitive account of the Young Lords from their roots as a street gang to their rise and fall as a political organization in the 1960s and 1970s.
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CONVERSATION | MEMBERS' ROOM and LIVESTREAM | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Cynthia Saltzman, Plunder: Napoleon's Theft of Veronese's Feast, with Xavier F. Salomon
Monday, October 25, 6:00 PM
Members' Room: $15 per person
Livestream: $10 per person
A captivating study of Napoleon’s plundering of Europe’s art for the Louvre, told through the story of a Renaissance masterpiece seized from Venice. Author Cynthia Saltzman talks about the history and the art with Xavier F. Salomon, The Frick Collection's Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator. A noted Veronese scholar, Salomon curated the 2014 exhibition on the artist at London's National Gallery.
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SPECIAL WRITING LIFE EVENT | MEMBERS' ROOM | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Uptown at Night: An Evening of Comedy and Humorous Storytelling
Thursday, November 4, 6:00 PM
$20 per person | registration required
Uptown at Night returns to the Members’ Room with a vibrant lineup of humorous storytellers and comedians including Joan Juliet Buck, Sloane Crosley, Patty Kiernan, Tom Perrotta, and James Harvey on keyboard. Sydney LeBlanc hosts.
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through May 1, 2022
In a consequential moment in American history, the New York Society Library presents a not-to-be-missed exhibition of its remarkable collection of books by African American, Caribbean, and African writers. The exhibition is open to the public in limited numbers during the Library's open hours.
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The Black Literature Matters exhibition is presented with generous support from The Florence Gould Foundation.
The Joseph J. Ellis event is a Henry S.F. Cooper Jr. Lecture on Early American History and Literature.
The Writing Life events in 2021 are generously underwritten by Jenny Lawrence.
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Quick Links
Library Hours Through September 3
Monday and Friday 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Saturday and Sunday 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
The Library will be closed Saturday, September 4, Sunday, September 5, and Monday, September 6, for Labor Day Weekend.
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