Bryant Park Reading Room
42nd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Wednesday, August 1, free, 12:30
www.bryantpark.org
On August 1, Bryant Park’s summer Word for Word series celebrates debut novels by featuring four local writers who have just published their first fiction books. NYU Law School grad Cristina Alger will discuss The Darlings, about a wealthy New York family immersed in a financial scandal. Longtime nonfiction writer, essayist, and short-story specialist Karl Taro Greenfield will talk about his first novel, Triburbia, in which a half dozen fathers meet every morning at a coffee shop in TriBeCa and share their secrets. San Diego native Karen Walker Thompson will present The Age of Miracles, some of which the current Brooklyn resident wrote while riding the subway. And nonfiction author Jean Zimmerman turns to historical fiction in The Orphanmaster, going back to 1663 New Amsterdam. The afternoon will be moderated by Catherine Chung, whose first novel, Forgotten Country, deals with the history of a Korean family. The Word for Word series continues on Wednesday night at 7:00 with Harold Holzer discussing his latest work, Emancipating Lincoln: The Proclamation in Text, Context, and Memory.