Tremor

An Evening with Teju Cole

 

Friday, October 20th | 8:00 pm

Join us for a conversation with Teju Cole—the award-winning author of Open City—on his powerful, intimate new novel that masterfully explores what constitutes a meaningful life in a violent world.

Tremor examines the passage of time and how we mark it. A startling work of realism and invention that engages brilliantly with literature, music, race, and history, it is a reckoning with human survival amidst “history’s own brutality, which refuses symmetries and seldom consoles.” And yet, it is also a testament to the possibility of joy. As he did in his magnificent debut Open City, Cole once again offers narration with all its senses alert, a surprising and deeply essential work from a beacon of contemporary literature.

Cole will be in conversation with Dr. Samuel Kọ́láwọlé.

Event Details:

  • This event is free and open to the public. No registration is required, but we’d appreciate an RSVP over on Facebook!

  • All book festival events, unless otherwise noted, will take place at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore’s main stage.

  • Seating is general admission; first come, first served.

  • A public book signing will immediately follow the discussion. Purchasing an author’s new or previously published book from the Midtown Scholar Bookstore is required for entry to the signing line. (Additional copies of a book may also be signed if time permits).

About the Speakers:

Teju Cole was born in the U.S. in 1975 to Nigerian parents and grew up in Lagos. His books include the novel Open City, the essay collections Known and Strange Things and Black Paper, and the experimental photo book Blind Spot. He has been honored with the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Internationaler Literaturpreis, the Windham-Campbell Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among others. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Cole is currently a professor of the practice of creative writing at Harvard University and a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine.

Dr. Samuel Kọ́láwọlé was born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria. His stories have published in a variety of publications, including AGNI, New England Review, Georgia Review, The Hopkins Review, Gulf Coast, Washington Square Review, Harvard Review, and Image Journal.  Kọ́láwọlé teaches fiction writing full-time at Pennsylvania State University, where he is an Assistant Professor of English and African Studies.