BGSQDBureau of General Services—Queer Division
BGSQD
This inaugural (virtual) BESPOKE NEXT GEN will feature readings by four fabulous writers, including poet/playwright Darrel Alejandro Holnes, novelist Nawaaz Ahmed, fiction/comic writer and playwright Emma Horwitz, and poet Beth Hightower, plus a small Q&A to follow.
As per past Bespoke events, our 02/02/2022 reading will serve as a fundraiser for “NYC Lunar New Year for All,” a community organization devoted to the safety and wellness of the queer AAPI population in celebration of the upcoming lunar new year.
Please make a donation when you register on Eventbrite. 80% of donations will go to “NYC Lunar New Year for All” and 20% will go to support our host, the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division.
For utmost safety, the event will be hosted via Zoom and live-streamed via the Bureau’s YouTube channel!
Registration on Eventbrite is required in order to gain access to the event on Zoom. All who register for the event can join by clicking on “access the event” on the event page on Eventbrite.
Purchase Nawaaz Ahmed’s Radiant Fugitives (Counterpoint, 2021, hardcover, $27) from the Bureau.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
NAWAAZ AHMED is a transplant from Tamil Nadu, India. He holds an MFA from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and is a former Kundiman and Lambda Literary Fellow. “Radiant Fugitives,” his first novel, was longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize (2021) and the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize. @nawaazonthenet
While at the University of California-Berkeley, BETH HIGHTOWER (Chinese/White) won the Joan Lee Yang Memorial Poetry Contest and received an honorable mention for the Academy of American Poets’ University and College Poetry Prize. They have read at UC-Berkeley’s Lunch Poems series, Spoonbill Studio’s Poetry 99, and the Home School. @bethtinshow
DARREL ALEJANDRO HOLNES is an Afro-Panamanian American writer and the author of Migrant Psalms (Northwestern University Press, 2021) and Stepmotherland (Notre Dame Press, 2022). He is the recipient of the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize, the Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize, and an NEA Literature Fellowship in Creative Writing (Poetry). He is an assistant professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) and a faculty member at New York University. @blackboytraveljoy
EMMA HORWITZ is a writer and educator from New York City. Her plays have been produced and/or supported by The Playwrights Realm (2021-2022 Writing Fellow), Williamstown Theater Festival (2020 Playwright-in-Residence), Page 73 (Semifinalist 2021 Playwriting Fellowship), Clubbed Thumb, New Georges etc. Her work in fiction and comics have been published in print and online at Spiral Bound, Moon Missives, Vol. 1 Brooklyn’s Sunday Stories, Joyland Magazine, Two Serious Ladies, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, etc. BA: Bard College, Written Arts. MFA: Brown University, Playwriting. @e_horwitz