Renowned Authors Join 40th Anniversary Of Houston Reading Series

Inprint, Houston's major literary arts nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring readers and writers, presents the 2020/2021 40th anniversary season of the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series, featuring eight evenings with ten world-renowned authors including: Julia Alvarez, Jericho Brown, Nick Hornby, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Marilynne Robinson, special guest Margaret Atwood, and others-via the Inprint "virtual studio," from September 2020 through April 2021.

One of the nation's leading literary showcases, the 2020/2021 season presents, as always, an award- winning, inclusive roster of authors, all with new books. Each live-streamed event will include brief readings by featured authors and conversations with national and local writers. The online readings begin at 7pm CT/8pm EST (except the Nick Hornby reading which begins at 4pm CT/5pm EST because of the time difference from London.) This year, in addition to the standard season ticket, Inprint is offering a premium 40th anniversary season ticket that will include books by every author shipped to subscribers (shipping included).

Since 1980, The Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series has presented more than 370 of the world's great writers from 36 countries, including winners of nine Nobel Prizes, 63 Pulitzer Prizes, 56 National Book Awards, 50 National Book Critics Circle Awards, and 15 Booker Prizes, as well as 19 U.S. Poets Laureate.

"Thanks to the people of Houston and beyond, the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series has thrived for four decades, focused on literary work," says Inprint Executive Director Rich Levy. "It's quite an accomplishment - to celebrate 40 seasons of accessible, high-quality events with an inclusive group of brilliant writers whose work provokes and inspires conversation and reflection."

"Inprint has brought the royalty of world literature to town... John Updike, John Irving, Louise Erdrich, Seamus Heaney, Salman Rushdie, Jeffrey Eugenides, Sandra Cisneros - those are just a few of the A-list authors who have read for the Inprint Brown Reading Series," writes the Houston Chronicle. Patrons describe the series as "amazing," "a civic treasure," "always fantastic important authors and enlightening

discussions," "vital and enriching." From the stage, a visiting author called it "one of the premier reading series in the world."

Two different season tickets are available this year: the standard ticket, which provides five books by featured authors, for $225, and the premium 40th anniversary ticket, which provides books by all ten authors, for $375 (shipping included with both). General admission tickets for the readings are $5 (same price since 1980), except for the Marilynne Robinson reading and the Margaret Atwood special event, for which tickets include the cost of their new books. To see when tickets for individual readings will go on sale, to purchase season tickets, and for further information visit www.inprinthouston.org.

The authors to be featured in the 2020/2021 Series include:

September 21, 2020 - Yaa Gyasi, author of the National Book Critics Circle Award winning novel Homegoing, with her new novel Transcendent Kingdom (in conversation with novelist Wayétu Moore);

October 5, 2020 - Marilynne Robinson, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead, with her new novel in the Gilead series, Jack (in conversation with novelist/physician Chris Adrian);

October 12, 2020 - Julia Alvarez, National Medal of Arts recipient, author of In the Time of the Butterflies, with her new novel Afterlife; and Sigrid Nunez, author of the National Book Award winning novel The Friend, with her new novel What Are You Going Through;

November 8, 2020 - Nick Hornby, internationally renowned author of High Fidelity and About a Boy, with his new novel, Just Like You (joining us from London);

November 14, 2020 - Special Event: Margaret Atwood, Booker Prize winning author of The Handmaid's Tale, with her new poetry collection Dearly (presented with Brazos Bookstore);

February 22, 2021 - Lily King, author of Euphoria, a New York Times Best Book of 2014, with her new novel Writers & Lovers; and Chang-rae Lee, PEN/Hemingway Award winning author of Native Speaker with his new novel My Year Abroad;

April 12, 2021 - Viet Thanh Nguyen, MacArthur Fellow and author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Sympathizer, with the sequel - his new novel The Committed;

April 26, 2021 - Jericho Brown, Inprint Fellow and Prize winner, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning poetry collection The Tradition.

If possible, the April readings will be held live in Houston and live streamed.