n+1 + McNally Jackson Books + Recap + Video With Keith Gessen

Holy crappy video quality! Sorry! I arrived at McNally Jackson Books on Prince St last Friday at 6:45pm to attend a reading by editors and contributors of n+1 reading from their latest issue. There were approximately 12 people there at that time, though moments later there were 30, and shortly after 7pm, well over 50 people were in attendance. I sat in front, off to the side, and waited for the n+1 crew to arrive. Keith Gessen, Mark Greif, Chad Harbach, Allison Lorentzen, David Noriega, Marco Roth, and Katherine Sharpe.

"I don't know any graffiti crews other than IRAK, but it seems rather unpleasant to make a joke about that now that he died," someone two seats over exclaimed. I didn't hear the whole conversation, but it started with a comment about a "graffiti crew from DUMBO." The conversation segued into talk of the graffiti fan's ipod skin, a Keith Haring painting.

In attendance now were a few noticeable faces from the world wide web of bloggers in New York City, milling about here and there. In fact, it felt a little like sitting in the internet. "You're taking very passionate notes," remarked my seated neighbor. "But don't worry," he reassured me, "I'm not going to ask you what you are writing."

n+1's Announces Their Magazines of the Americas Project

This past Friday, the McNally Jackson Bookstore on Prince St hosted editors and contributors from n+1 magazine, who read works from their latest issue and discussed a new project, Magazines of the Americas.

Shortly after 7pm, the editors and contributors of n+1 took their seats in front of the crowd. After a few words from staff of the bookstore welcoming everyone, Keith Gessen, Mark Greif, Chad Harbach, Allison Lorentzen, David Noriega, Marco Roth, and Katherine Sharpe rose one after another to give readings of their works. They were all noteworthy, thought the loveliest reading came from Katherine Sharpe's R WE GOING TO DAI ALONE? a review of online dating sites. You can and should read that in part, here.

Mark Greif read from his work On Repressive Sentimentalism: Gay abortion now! During the Q&A after, an audience member asked Mark about his attack on marriage, only half jokingly pointing out: "Some might say, 'But you were married this summer.'"

After disclosing that they recieved "a lot" of letters to the editor about his piece, a number of which made that same point in varying degrees, Mark admitted he discovered he might not have been as in tune with the "common sense" as he thought he was. "But I don't think you should attack institutions," he concluded, "unless you yourself participate or engage with them. So that is my defense."

n+1 contributor David Noriega read from Among Friends by Mexico City's prolific and admired Juan Villoro—work Noriega himself translated for the current issue of n+1:

The telephone rang twenty times. On the other end of the line someone was thinking that I live in an estate where it takes a long time to get from the stables to the telephone, or that I hesitate a lot before picking up the receiver. The latter, sadly, turned out to be the case.

It was Samuel Kramer. He had returned to Mexico City to write a report on violence

Though it wasn't described as such, the reading seemed to be a beta version n+1's "Magazine of the Americas" project announced by David that evening. Beginning with the next issue of n+1, the project seeks to publish a translated work from one selected magazine in the Americas, continuing with a work from a different country with each new issue of n+1. Upcoming issues will feature work from writers in Peru and Columbia. After the event, David told us more about Magazines of the America, watch below:


Video commentary by Keith Gessen on how the fiction in n+1 differs than fiction in The New Yorker or Harper's, will be forthcoming.

Video: Paolo Mastrangelo / Photo: n+1 Twitter