Unlike other virtual events, which importantly seek to promote and share a writer’s own work, we’re inviting Roger Reeves on August 25th, Esmé Weijun Wang on September 15th, and Carmen Maria Machado on October 13th to discuss and share eight books that shaped their thinking, changed them, and helped them grow as writers, as thinkers, and as people. There will be an ASL interpreter provided at each virtual event.

For each “My Constellation of 8” event, we’ve partnered with an independent bookstore of the author’s choice to sell the recommended texts as well as books by the writers themselves. During these socially distant times, it seems particularly urgent to explore and discuss the ways in which we’re connected to one another, the ways in which we’ve been influenced and shaped by the art and artists we admire, and the ways in which we can support the independent bookstores that are, in so many cases, the beating hearts of their literary communities.

Our first installment will feature award-winning poet Roger Reeves in conversation about eight of his literary influences with ASF‘s Coeditor Adeena Reitberger and will benefit Black Pearl Books, an Austin-based indie bookstore promoting diversity, inclusion, equality, community, and cultural awareness through literature.