The Center for Fiction

The Center for Fiction A home for writers and readers for over 200 years. We support and celebrate fiction through events, writing workshops, reading groups, awards, and more.

Visit our bookstore, café and bar, auditorium, and membership spaces in Downtown Brooklyn.

✨ Award-winning authors Percival Everett, Cleyvis Natera, and Danzy Senna will join us at The Center for Fiction 2026 An...
10/08/2026

✨ Award-winning authors Percival Everett, Cleyvis Natera, and Danzy Senna will join us at The Center for Fiction 2026 Annual Awards Benefit on Tuesday, December 8, 2026, as the evening’s featured presenters.

Everett will present the 2026 Medal for Editorial Excellence to Doubleday editor Lee Boudreaux, and Natera will present the 2026 Lifetime of Excellence in Fiction Award to author Julia Alvarez. Senna will announce the winner of The Center for Fiction 2026 First Novel Prize live that evening.

Learn more: benefit.centerforfiction.org!

Consider the role of secrets, the surreal, and the sea in Magenta Naaku’s upcoming reading course on four contemporary m...
10/06/2026

Consider the role of secrets, the surreal, and the sea in Magenta Naaku’s upcoming reading course on four contemporary masterpieces by Ghanaian and Nigerian authors:

📕 Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
📗 The Teller of Secrets by Bisi Adjapon
📘 Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde
📙 Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

These works challenge and complicate outdated social dynamics; explore q***r identities, generational curses, femme freedom and pleasure; examine the undeniable impact of slavery in the U.S. and West Africa; and celebrate African futurism, q***r joy, and the expansiveness of femme desire.

Join us! centerforfiction.org/group-workshop/west-african-literature-secrets-the-surreal-and-the-sea-with-magenta-naaku/

We are thrilled to present The Center for Fiction 2026 First Novel Prize Shortlist! 📖 A Real Animal by Emeline Atwood (C...
09/30/2026

We are thrilled to present The Center for Fiction 2026 First Novel Prize Shortlist!

📖 A Real Animal by Emeline Atwood (Catapult)
📖 Carrying by Samantha Josephs (Putnam Books)
📖 Whidbey by T Kira Madden (Mariner Books)
📖 Ruins, Child by Giada Scodellaro (New Directions)
📖 Offseason by Avigayl Sharp (Astra House Books)
📖 Blow Yourself Up by Ankur Thakkar (Northwestern University Press)
📖 The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
(Scribner Books)

The seven titles were selected from the longlist by this year's judges: R. O. Kwon, Kiese Laymon, Jordy Rosenberg, and Danzy Senna. Swipe to read the judges' commentary—and please join us in congratulating the finalists. 📚

Learn more at: centerforfiction.org/book-recs/2026-first-novel-prize-shortlist.

We're excited to launch EVERY STORY IS A LOVE STORY (Random House), the much-anticipated new novel from Imbolo Mbue, aut...
09/29/2026

We're excited to launch EVERY STORY IS A LOVE STORY (Random House), the much-anticipated new novel from Imbolo Mbue, author of the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning debut 'Behold the Dreamers'. 📙

What do we owe to those who have hurt us? Are we defined by our worst moments and our deepest regrets? Can forgiveness ease our suffering? 'Every Story Is a Love Story' considers all these questions and more.

Join Mbue and award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson for a moving discussion about the book's craft and themes by registering here: tinyurl.com/4nuhz3vs. A signing will follow the event.

🎉 Tickets for The Center for Fiction’s 2026 First Novel Fête—the best book(ish) party in Brooklyn—are on sale now!The Fê...
09/25/2026

🎉 Tickets for The Center for Fiction’s 2026 First Novel Fête—the best book(ish) party in Brooklyn—are on sale now!

The Fête is one of our favorite traditions, celebrating the seven authors (soon to be announced…) shortlisted for our First Novel Prize. Expect tarot readings, readings from the finalists' work, door prizes from our generous supporters, wh**ky tastings, and more.

Best of all? Proceeds from the Fête help sustain The Center's work as a nonprofit for readers and writers of all ages, from our KidsRead program with New York City public schools and community programs, to our fellowships and awards for emerging writers.

Excited? You should be! This year’s Fête also features:
🎙️ Emmy-winning comedian, writer, and director Auguste White as our fabulous emcee
🍴 A delicious menu of seasonal bites and desserts courtesy of Winner
🥃 Signature cocktails courtesy of Johnnie Walker
🍷 W**e provided by Selection Massale

Tickets go fast—so get yours ASAP at centerforfiction.org/fete.

Our upcoming workshop, Constraints That Set You Free with Eliot Duncan, the author of PONYBOY, is perfect for writers in...
09/25/2026

Our upcoming workshop, Constraints That Set You Free with Eliot Duncan, the author of PONYBOY, is perfect for writers interested in combining literary analysis, generative prompts, and experimental writing in a fun, non-judgmental setting.

Using the Penguin Book of OuLiPo as a guide, participants will study foundational and contemporary constraint-based texts by authors such as Georges Perec, Italo Calvino, and Anne Garréta. You'll also build an Oulipian toolkit of daily prompts (including constraints of your own invention!) and share work weekly.

📓 This course starts soon, so register ASAP: tinyurl.com/mknk6t8b!

If you write nonfiction, you can still hang out with us. Don’t miss two of our upcoming virtual workshops in October, sp...
09/23/2026

If you write nonfiction, you can still hang out with us. Don’t miss two of our upcoming virtual workshops in October, specifically for essay writers and memoirists:

🖊️ (10.6) From Personal Essay to Lyric Essay with Javier Sinay: As Elizabeth Hardwick famously put it in her introduction to The Best American Essays 1986, reading an essay is like seeing a “mind at work.” In this course, we will read different essays—personal, lyric, and more—to find the engineering behind the literature. We’ll consider point of view, scene work, tone, structure, openings, revision, and more. Sign up at tinyurl.com/y55sxpjr.

🖊️ (10.20) On Memoir: Permission and the Courage to Create with Elissa Altman: In this workshop, participants will navigate thorny questions of story ownership when crafting a narrative that involves others, and use readings and generative exercises to locate the heart of your story. Topics will include: finding the narrator, identifying “characters,” honing in on voice, and more. Sign up at tinyurl.com/35ud4xhp.

Join us as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Alexander Chee’s groundbreaking debut novel, EDINBURGH, with featured gu...
09/22/2026

Join us as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Alexander Chee’s groundbreaking debut novel, EDINBURGH, with featured guests Mira Jacob, Brandon Taylor, and R. O. Kwon: tinyurl.com/h9ehabmc!

📗 'Edinburgh' is a piercing coming-of-age story that grapples with the process of growing through, around, and beyond abuse. Chee, Jacob, Taylor, and Kwon will discuss Edinburgh’s influence and the essential role creativity plays in facing tragedy and forging identity. All tickets include a signed copy of the 25th anniversary edition of 'Edinburgh'; a book-signing will follow the event.

The living and the dead come vibrantly into focus in Melanie Fleishman’s final Bookstore column of summer 2026. 🍂 Check ...
09/22/2026

The living and the dead come vibrantly into focus in Melanie Fleishman’s final Bookstore column of summer 2026. 🍂 Check out snippets of her reviews below, and then read them in full: tinyurl.com/mpffys3e!

📖 An Unexpected Life by Gloria Steinem: “Coming so close on the heels of her passing, Steinem's book reminds us of her enduring legacy and much-deserved place as a cultural icon.”

📖 Hollywood, Ending by John Green: “A timely and tender story—Green's first for adults.”

📖 Female Life on Planet Earth by Laleh Khadivi: “A novel about mothers and daughters, and the inescapable power of inheritance.”

📖 The Living Realm by Jordan Tannahill: “Tannahill succeeds in evoking big emotions and blurring time while honoring the dead.”

📖 Desperate Bodies by Lydia Mathis: “Mathis takes the ordinary lives of Black women down South and infuses them with a raw honesty.”

As fall approaches, don't miss Hannah Kingsley-Ma's generative writing workshop for writers of all levels on using food ...
09/21/2026

As fall approaches, don't miss Hannah Kingsley-Ma's generative writing workshop for writers of all levels on using food as a framework. Learn more below—and register here: tinyurl.com/4hsf6y8f!

Fictional characters, like real people, have to eat—and when they do, we often learn a lot about them:

Who they share their life with. What brings them comfort or disgust. What private pleasures they allow themselves. How they feel in their bodies. How they talk to the people around them. What their neighborhoods look like, and much more.

Meal scenes can also facilitate pivotal conversations between characters, set the stage for larger gatherings where collisions occur, or serve as private moments for individual protagonists in which subtext reigns supreme.

This generative class is for writers with existing projects they feel currently stuck in, or for anyone who needs a prompt to get started.

Address

15 Lafayette Avenue
New York, NY
11217

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 8pm
Tuesday 9am - 8pm
Wednesday 9am - 8pm
Thursday 9am - 8pm
Friday 9am - 8pm
Saturday 9am - 8pm
Sunday 9am - 8pm

Telephone

+12127556710

Website

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