Homestead: Melinda Moustakis with Danielle Evans

National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree Melinda Moustakis discusses her novel  about the turbulent marriage of two homesteaders in 1950s Alaska.

For Lawrence, 150 acres of Alaskan wilderness is an opportunity; for Marie, marrying the man she meets at the Moose Lodge is a chance to escape an empty future. Together in a territory on the verge of enormous change, Lawrence and Marie settle on stolen land, fitting their hard-wrought lives together. Melinda Moustakis's debut novel is a depiction of small intimacies and sweeping currents, an unflinching vision of both a new marriage and a territory becoming a new state.

Melinda Moustakis wrote Homestead as the 2017-2018 Rona Jaffe Foundation Fellow at the Library's Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. She will discuss the book with fiction writer Danielle Evans.

To join this event in-person | Please be sure to register for an In-Person Ticket. Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form shortly before the program.

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ACCESSIBILITY

In-Person | Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue. You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template. This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

Livestream | Captions and a transcript will be provided. Media used over the course of the conversation will be accompanied by alt text and/or audio description. You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Melinda Moustakis was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, and grew up in California. Her debut story collection, Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories, won the Flannery O’Connor Award and was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 selection. Her work has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Granta, and Kenyon Review, and she has been awarded the O. Henry Prize. She is a recipient of the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University and the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Fiction. At the Cullman Center, she was the Rona Jaffe Foundation Fellow.

Danielle Evans is the author of two award-winning story collections, The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and is a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree. Her stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Callaloo, and The Sewanee Review and have been anthologized in Best American Short Stories. She teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University.

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