Kyle Rea (pictured above)
Bookseller, Bushwick
Did you help Catherine Lacey sign the books?
We pull everything off the floor and bring it to the back, then somebody opens to the page Catherine will sign, hands the book to someone else who hands it to Catherine to sign, then she hands it to someone else who stickers the book for people to buy. I did most of the stickering, so anyone who bought a book with a signed copy sticker, that was all me.
Are you a writer, too?
Yes. I just graduated with my M.F.A. from the New School in 2022 and wrote a novel as my thesis, which I’m currently looking to get an agent for. It’s a rom-com thriller about a lesbian couple who live in Brooklyn. They’re both aspiring artists, and they decide to get a sugar daddy together — and then one of them kills him, and it’s basically the other one trying to figure out what happened while they clean it up.
Joseph Milholland
Account executive, Bay Ridge
K. Kerimian
Events coordinator, Fort Greene
Lake Micah
Magazine editor, Upper West Side
Do you know Catherine?
We met a while back. We were mutual admirers. Tonight was packed to the gills, which is great. Literary culture is kind of dying in New York. Bookforum closed. All the major magazines run too frequently and are poorly edited. That’s why we have no avant-garde, no zines, why the East Village is no longer an artist bastion.
Sarah High
Partnerships manager, Prospect–Lefferts Gardens
Annabelle Long
Speechwriter, Two Bridges
Who are your clients?
I signed an NDA, so I can’t say. But a dream would be to write Kyrsten Sinema’s biography. I feel like there’s a lot there. Like, why did she write her Ph.D. thesis about Agamben? Why is she a Facebook Marketplace seller? I just don’t understand her at all.
Daniel Saldaña Paris
Writer, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Julia Tompkins
Brand-strategy consultant, Fort Greene
Cole Doman
Actor, Bushwick
Are you a big reader?
Yes, and I’m one of those people who if the lead character is smoking a cigarette, I’m smoking a cigarette. If I’m reading Joan Didion, I’m texting like I’m Joan Didion — her syntax; her dry, clever apathy — and my boyfriend’s like, “Cole, that’s intense.”
Wilhelmina Peragine
Arts educator, Park Slope
Becky Zhang
Editorial assistant, Clinton Hill
Jackson Howard
Book editor, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Aden Hakimi
Actor and editor, Ditmas Park
What did you do today?
I narrate audiobooks, so I was narrating a new book. It’s one of my favorites, the third in a series of kids’ books by Stuart Gibbs called The Sea of Terror. I’m, like, seven characters in the book, so I get to do some fun voices. I play the prince, I play the village idiot, I play knights. It’s fun, as opposed to reading books about philosophy or the new John Irving.
Samantha Yadron
M.F.A. student, Upper West Side
Nicolas Ochart
Associate director, Prospect–Lefferts Gardens
Peter Dyer
Publishing intern, Ridgewood
Milo Walls
Book editor, Crown Heights
Notice any trends in submissions lately?
For two years, there was a grand proliferation of books about motherhood. Lately, I’m getting a lot of books about what masculinity means. Like, boxing and tennis and tenderness — and Tennessee Williams. It’s funny.
Catherine Lacey
Novelist, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Scott Larrabee
Associate exhibit director, Cobble Hill
Joseph Milholland
Account executive, Bay Ridge
K. Kerimian
Events coordinator, Fort Greene
Lake Micah
Magazine editor, Upper West Side
Do you know Catherine?
We met a while back. We were mutual admirers. Tonight was packed to the gills, which is great. Literary culture is kind of dying in New York. Bookforum closed. All the major magazines run too frequently and are poorly edited. That’s why we have no avant-garde, no zines, why the East Village is no longer an artist bastion.
Sarah High
Partnerships manager, Prospect–Lefferts Gardens
Annabelle Long
Speechwriter, Two Bridges
Who are your clients?
I signed an NDA, so I can’t say. But a dream would be to write Kyrsten Sinema’s biography. I feel like there’s a lot there. Like, why did she write her Ph.D. thesis about Agamben? Why is she a Facebook Marketplace seller? I just don’t understand her at all.
Daniel Saldaña Paris
Writer, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Julia Tompkins
Brand-strategy consultant, Fort Greene
Cole Doman
Actor, Bushwick
Are you a big reader?
Yes, and I’m one of those people who if the lead character is smoking a cigarette, I’m smoking a cigarette. If I’m reading Joan Didion, I’m texting like I’m Joan Didion — her syntax; her dry, clever apathy — and my boyfriend’s like, “Cole, that’s intense.”
Wilhelmina Peragine
Arts educator, Park Slope
Becky Zhang
Editorial assistant, Clinton Hill
Jackson Howard
Book editor, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Aden Hakimi
Actor and editor, Ditmas Park
What did you do today?
I narrate audiobooks, so I was narrating a new book. It’s one of my favorites, the third in a series of kids’ books by Stuart Gibbs called The Sea of Terror. I’m, like, seven characters in the book, so I get to do some fun voices. I play the prince, I play the village idiot, I play knights. It’s fun, as opposed to reading books about philosophy or the new John Irving.
Samantha Yadron
M.F.A. student, Upper West Side
Nicolas Ochart
Associate director, Prospect–Lefferts Gardens
Peter Dyer
Publishing intern, Ridgewood
Milo Walls
Book editor, Crown Heights
Notice any trends in submissions lately?
For two years, there was a grand proliferation of books about motherhood. Lately, I’m getting a lot of books about what masculinity means. Like, boxing and tennis and tenderness — and Tennessee Williams. It’s funny.
Catherine Lacey
Novelist, Bedford-Stuyvesant
Scott Larrabee
Associate exhibit director, Cobble Hill
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