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Free events for Wednesday, 10/07/26
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Are you looking for literary events like book readings, book signings, poetry readings? Then you came to the right place. Start using these unique New York City opportunities today!
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25 free poetry readings, book signings, author readings in New York City (NYC) Wed, 10/07/2026 - and on...

Not a day goes by in New York City (NYC) without a free poetry reading or a book signing or a book reading by a famous or not yet famous author. Don't miss the opportunities that only New York provides!

        

Poetry Reading | Artist/Poet Shares Her Latest Pieces


A reading by Alice Attie in celebration of her newest collection, Maybe.  About the book: A collection of poems that explores transformation, dissolution, and renewal—and how language itself can become a site of regeneration.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Wed, Oct 7
7:00 pm
free, RSVP required
Poetry Readings, October 07, 2026, 10/07/2026, Artist/Poet Shares Her Latest&nbsp;Pieces

Author Reading | Vivian Gornick Shares Her Nonfiction Works


A reading by bestselling journalist, essayist, and memoirist followed by a conversation/Q&A with Parul Sehgal. The event will conclude with a reception/signing with books for sale. Vivian Gornick is a critic, journalist, essayist, and memoirist. She has published work in the New York Times, The Nation, and the Atlantic Monthly. Her numerous books include Taking a Long Look: Essays on Culture, Literature, and Feminism in Our Time, Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader, The Odd Woman and the City, and more.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Thu, Oct 8
7:00 pm
free, RSVP required
Author Readings, October 08, 2026, 10/08/2026, Vivian Gornick Shares Her Nonfiction Works

Poetry Reading | New York Foundation for the Arts Award Winning Writers' Reading Verse (+ Reception/Signing)


A poetry reading by Kazim Ali, Jill Bialosky, and Tina Chang. The event will conclude with a reception/signing with books for sale. Kazim Ali's most recent book is Sukun: New and Selected Poems, which Publisher's Weekly called "dazzling." Jill Bialosky's newest work of prose is The End is the Beginning: A Personal History of My Mother. Her most recent volume of poetry, Asylum: A Personal, Historical, Natural Inquiry in 103 Lyric Sections, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Tina Chang is the author of the poetry collections Hybrida, Half-Lit Houses, and Of Gods & Strangers. She is also co-editor of the Norton anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
Fri, Oct 9
5:00 pm
free, RSVP required
Poetry Readings, October 09, 2026, 10/09/2026, New York Foundation for the Arts Award Winning Writers' Reading Verse (+ Reception/Signing)

Author Reading | New York TImes-Featured Writer Shares Her New Criticism of Everyday Subjects


A reading and conversation with Wendy S. Walters for her new book, A Dead White: An Argument Against White Paint. About the book: An impassioned, boundary-pushing work of criticism traversing an array of subjects, from fine arts to design to architecture, taking aim at the ubiquity of white paint in our society and what its prevalence reveals about our values.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Tue, Oct 13
7:00 pm
free, RSVP required
Author Readings, October 13, 2026, 10/13/2026, New York TImes-Featured Writer Shares Her New Criticism of Everyday Subjects

Poetry Reading | Poetry Open Mic: Share Your Work or Listen to Emerging Writers


Participants can share their original work for up to five minutes. Space is limited to 15 readers; show up on time to get a slot!
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Thu, Oct 15
5:30 pm
free, register for...
Poetry Readings, October 15, 2026, 10/15/2026, Poetry Open Mic: Share Your Work or Listen to Emerging Writers

Poetry Reading | Latin Poetry Salon


A poetry reading by Diannely Antigua, Francisco Aragon, and Mandy Gutmann-Gonzalez. The event will conclude with a reception/signing with books for sale. Diannely Antigua is a Dominican American poet and educator. She is the author of two poetry collections, Ugly Music, which was the winner of the Pamet River Prize and a 2020 Whiting Award, and Good Monster. Francisco Aragon's books include, After Ruben, Glow of Our Sweat, and Puerta de Sol. Mandy Gutmann-Gonzalez is a Chilean poet and novelist working at the intersections of text, performance, archive, and translation. They are the author of La Pava and A/An.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Thu, Oct 15
7:00 pm
free, RSVP required
Poetry Readings, October 15, 2026, 10/15/2026, Latin Poetry Salon

Poetry Reading | Prize-WInning Poets Celebrate the Release of Book-Length Poem on the Arboreal


A reading by Jay Gao to celebrate the release of The Dead One, the Unconscious One, Thundering in Your Ear, Thriving Slumber. He will be joined by the poet Lynn Xu. Their reading will be followed by a conversation with Patricia Dailey. About the book: Part ecopoetic inventory, part dream vision, The Dead One, The Unconscious One, Thundering in Your Ear, Thriving Slumber is an experimental book-length poem on the arboreal.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Thu, Oct 15
7:00 pm
free, RSVP required
Poetry Readings, October 15, 2026, 10/15/2026, Prize-WInning Poets Celebrate the Release of Book-Length Poem on the Arboreal

Poetry Reading | A Living Poem Centering the Multidimensionality of Black Embodiment: Multimedia Experience


Created collaboratively with flutist and composer Jane Rigler, Rachel Eliza Griffiths’s performance combines original experimental soundscapes of the natural world with poems, including those by Lucille Clifton, Roberta Flack, Federico García Lorca, and Muriel Rukeyser. This event also features movement along with video projections that collapse the past, present, and future of a recovered spiritual and ancestral village. Participants are invited to witness and meditate in a space of bodily rhythm, imagery, and sound.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Fri, Oct 16
6:30 pm
free, registration required
Poetry Readings, October 16, 2026, 10/16/2026, A Living Poem&nbsp;Centering the Multidimensionality of Black Embodiment: Multimedia Experience

Poetry Reading | Multilingual Poetry Night: Quantum Age


Discover the concepts of Quantum Age Poetry and Quantum Poetics with this multilingual poetry event exploringinnovative poetic frameworks.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Wed, Oct 21
6:30 pm
free, registration required
Poetry Readings, October 21, 2026, 10/21/2026, Multilingual Poetry Night: Quantum Age

Poetry Reading | New Books of Poetry: 4 Readings


Celebrate new work from Four Way Books press! Featuring David Orr and M.M. Kelly, with additional readings by Howard Levy and Donna Masini.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Wed, Oct 21
7:00 pm
free, RSVP required
Poetry Readings, October 21, 2026, 10/21/2026, New Books of Poetry: 4 Readings

Poetry Reading | Allen Ginsberg's "Howl": Beat Poetry Performed Live (with Jazz Accompaniment) (In Person AND Online!)


Featuring MSM Jazz Arts musicians, narrated by Justin Jay Hines. "Howl" is a foundational text of the Beat movement and is widely taught for its innovations in form, its critique of postwar American conformity and capitalism, and its influence on subsequent generations of poets and musicians. Its raw language is intentional and central to its artistic and historical significance; the poem was the subject of a 1957 obscenity trial that became a landmark First Amendment case. This poem, written in 1955-56, contains explicit and sustained references to drug use, sexuality (including graphic depictions), mental illness and institutionalization, suicide and self-harm, profanity, and racially charged language reflecting its era. It also engages frankly with psychiatric treatment (including electroshock therapy) and addiction. Readers who may be sensitive to depictions of psychiatric crisis, addiction, or suicidal ideation should feel free to step out or engage with the material at their own pace.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
Wed, Oct 21
7:30 pm
free, no reservation required
Poetry Readings, October 21, 2026, 10/21/2026, Allen Ginsberg's "Howl": Beat Poetry Performed Live (with Jazz Accompaniment) (In Person AND Online!)

Reading | Pushcart Prize-Winning Writers Share Prose & Poetry


A reading by James Ciano, Sara Elkamel, Michelle Phương Hồ, Kyle Carrero Lopez, Migwi Mwangi, and Lindsay Turner, hosted by Matthew Rohrer. The event will conclude with a reception/signing with books for sale.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Fri, Oct 23
5:00 pm
free, RSVP required
Readings, October 23, 2026, 10/23/2026, Pushcart Prize-Winning Writers Share Prose & Poetry

Poetry Reading | Poetry & Music Celebrating Award-Winning Writer Sonia Sanchez


The legendary group Sweet Honey in the Rock joins Tracy K. Smith, Danez Smith, Jessica Care Moore, and Ursula Rucker to honor the "Poet Laureate of the Planet!" Yolanda Wisher hosts, with special appearances by Ama Birch, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Cornelius Eady, and Pamela Sneed.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Fri, Oct 23
7:30 pm
free, RSVP required
Poetry Readings, October 23, 2026, 10/23/2026, Poetry & Music Celebrating&nbsp;Award-Winning Writer Sonia Sanchez

Poetry Reading | Haiku Poetry Performance Party


Experience the collective effervescence of radical poetic co-creation at the HAIKU SLAM! Every audience member will get to participate and have their moment to SHINE, seventeen syllables at a time. This competitive yet oh-so-collaborative haiku slam is facilitated by Lisa Ann "LAMarks" Markuson, founder and Chief Poetic Officer of Ars Poetica, the haiku gal trained by Japanese monks in the art of perfectly balanced micro-poetry. Get ready for prizes and poetic surprises in this fun poetry performance party.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Sat, Oct 24
6:00 pm
free, donations welcome,...
Poetry Readings, October 24, 2026, 10/24/2026, Haiku Poetry Performance Party

Poetry Reading | Poetry Prize Reading Celebrating Outstanding Poems by Indigenous U.S. Poets


A celebration for the winners of the sixth edition of the James Welch Prize. This is an initiative established by Poetry Northwest to recognize two outstanding poems by Indigenous U.S. poets. With readings from this year’s judge, Santee Frazier, and winning poets Casandra López and Alexis Clifton.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Tue, Oct 27
7:00 pm
free, donations welcome,...
Poetry Readings, October 27, 2026, 10/27/2026, Poetry Prize Reading&nbsp;Celebrating Outstanding Poems by Indigenous U.S. Poets

Reading | Sylvia Plath's Poetry, Read by Her Editor


Leading Plath scholar and co-editor of the new definitive edition of Plath's poetry, Amanda Golden, Ph.D. Amanda Golden is Professor of English at New York Institute of Technology and a Research Affiliate at Smith College. She has co-edited The Poems of Sylvia Plath (2026) with Karen V. Kukil, a project supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Copies of The Poems of Sylvia Plath will be for sale, with the editor signing directly following the event.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Tue, Oct 27
7:00 pm
free, tickets required
Readings, October 27, 2026, 10/27/2026, Sylvia Plath's Poetry, Read by Her Editor

Author Reading | Discover Contemporary European Literature


An evening of contemporary literary luminaries from 11 different countries addressing themes like time, authoritarianism, community, and more. European Literature Night (ELN) presents an evening of voices from across Europe through discussions, readings, and performances.  For one evening, New York becomes a meeting place for acclaimed authors, translators, publishers, and readers from across Europe. Enjoy live readings, engaging conversations moderated by PEN America, book signings, a curated selection of featured titles, and a festive reception.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Wed, Oct 28
6:00 pm
free, RSVP required
Author Readings, October 28, 2026, 10/28/2026, Discover Contemporary European Literature

Poetry Reading | Acclaimed Voices in Ukrainian Poetry Read Their Work + English-Language Translations


Poet as Witness brings together acclaimed Ukrainian poets and the English translators of their works to share readings and discussion on how poetry bears witness to a nation at war. Yaryna Chornohuz and Lesyk Panasiuk — two of the most vital voices in contemporary Ukrainian poetry — will read from their work, followed by English-language translations by Amelia Glaser, Ilya Kaminsky, and Katie Farris, offering audiences a rare opportunity to hear these poems both in the original Ukrainian and in translation. This event will be moderated by Amelia Glaser. Chornohuz, a soldier and 2024 Shevchenko Prize laureate, writes from the front lines with a soldier’s sober eye, turning the strange and the ordinary alike into moments of startling clarity; Panasiuk‘s work moves fluidly between the intimate and the historical, tracing how war reshapes language itself. The evening will also honor the poetry of Maksym Kryvtsov, the poet and soldier killed in action in January 2024, whose work has come to stand as one of the defining testimonies of this war: poems written in the trenches that speak with extraordinary clarity about loss, brotherhood, and what it means to fight for one’s homeland. Translated by Larissa Babij, his work will be published in 2027 by Jantar Press.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Wed, Oct 28
7:00 pm
free, donations welcome,...
Poetry Readings, October 28, 2026, 10/28/2026, Acclaimed Voices in Ukrainian Poetry Read Their Work + English-Language Translations

Poetry Reading | Multilingual Collective Poetry Reading (+ Live Music)


An Incidental Chorus is an attentive listening and reading event facilitated by Como un lugar. It brings together Latin American writers in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Pages and fragments from a body of texts circulate through the room, and anyone present is invited to read aloud whenever the moment calls for it. A musician, serving as a kind of conductor for the piece, allows for pauses, silences, and swells, creating a dialogue with the audience’s voices as they rise and recede. The collective reading will be a composition built from listening as much as from the poetry itself.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Thu, Oct 29
7:00 pm
free, donations welcome,...
Poetry Readings, October 29, 2026, 10/29/2026, Multilingual Collective Poetry Reading (+ Live Music)

Poetry Reading | Pulitzer Prize Finalists Share their Words in Verse


A poetry reading by Robin Coste Lewis and Adrian Matejka. The event will conclude with a reception/signing with books for sale. Robin Coste Lewis won the National Book Award for Voyage of the Sable Venus, her first collection of poetry. The book was also a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and it was named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and The New York Times. Adrian Matejka is the author of The Devil’s Garden, which won the New York / New England Award, and Mixology, a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Thu, Oct 29
7:00 pm
free, RSVP required
Poetry Readings, October 29, 2026, 10/29/2026, Pulitzer Prize Finalists Share their Words in Verse

Poetry Reading | Poems of Persecuted Poets, Read Aloud


This event gathers poets Kwame Dawes, Heid E. Erdrich, Camonghne Felix, Uche Nduka, Naomi Shihab Nye, José Olivarez, Jimin Seo, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, and Anselm Berrigan, inviting them to read and reflect on the work of poets who wrote during times of oppression.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Fri, Oct 30
7:00 pm
free, donations welcome,...
Poetry Readings, October 30, 2026, 10/30/2026, Poems of Persecuted Poets, Read Aloud

Poetry Reading | Tibetan, Sierra Leonean, & Venezuelan Poets & Musicians Celebrate New York City's Mother Tongues


“Language City," hosted by Ross Perlin, author of Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York, featuring Sierra Leonian poet-historian Kewulay Kamara, Tibetan poet Tsering Gyaltso, and community scholar Nawang Gurung, and Venezuelan llanera singers Luis “El Cacique” Garcia and Mafer Bandola, with harp and maraca accompaniment. Followed by a discussion about minority languages in New York City. 
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Sat, Oct 31
1:00 pm
free, donations welcome,...
Poetry Readings, October 31, 2026, 10/31/2026, Tibetan, Sierra Leonean, & Venezuelan Poets & Musicians&nbsp;Celebrate&nbsp;New York City's Mother Tongues

Poetry Reading | Poetry & Music: Ilya Kaminsy Reads His Award-Winning Work


Experience words and music from around the globe. This salon will feature a reading by poet Ilya Kaminsky, accompanied by singer Carrie Erving and cellist Chris Loxley. A printout will be available for attendees to follow along with Kaminsky's poetry during the reading. Following the reading, Kaminsky will be interviewed by event host Patricio Ferrari. Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa, former Soviet Union, in 1977, and arrived to the US in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the government. He is the author of Deaf Republic and Dancing In Odessa and co-editor and co-translator of many other books. His work was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, the Whiting Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award, and Poetry magazine’s Levinson Prize, and was also shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Neustadt International Literature Prize, and T.S. Eliot Prize (UK). He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lannan Fellowship, an Academy of American Poets’ Fellowship, and an NEA Fellowship. 
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Wed, Nov 4
6:30 pm
free, registration required
Poetry Readings, November 04, 2026, 11/04/2026, Poetry & Music: Ilya Kaminsy Reads His Award-Winning Work

Reading | Readings & Musical Performances Inspired by Howard Zinn


A night featuring actors Wallace Shawn, Jessica Hecht, and Arian Moayed, comedian Hari Kondabolu, musician Ali Dineen, poet Staceyann Chin, and other special guests to be announced. The night is inspired by author Dave Zirin’s acclaimed new biography, The People's Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn, and will feature selections from Zinn’s own writing and speeches, as well as work that deeply inspired him; narrated by Dave Zirin and Haley Pessin. There are two ways to access this event: 1. General Admission, first-come first-served. Just show up! 2. Fast Track opening the Monday before the event at noon.
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Thu, Nov 5
7:30 pm
free, fast-track option...
Readings, November 05, 2026, 11/05/2026, Readings & Musical Performances Inspired by Howard Zinn

Poetry Reading | Poetry Open Mic: Share Your Work or Listen to Emerging Writers


Participants can share their original work for up to five minutes. Space is limited to 15 readers; show up on time to get a slot!
   Manhattan, New York, NY
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Thu, Nov 19
5:30 pm
free, register for...
Poetry Readings, November 19, 2026, 11/19/2026, Poetry Open Mic: Share Your Work or Listen to Emerging Writers
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