Washington’s debut book Lot selected to The New York Times 100 Notable Books and included on Barack Obama’s favourite books of 2019
The Koffler Centre of the Arts is thrilled to announce the return of its year-round Books & Ideas series for 2020 with Texas-based fiction writer and social commentator, Bryan Washington, in conversation with Toronto-based author Adnan Khan, author of the novel
There Has to Be a Knife (2019).
Washington’s only Toronto appearance is on Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at 7 PM, at the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI Annex), 720 Bathurst St.
Dubbed "the rising star of literary Houston" (
Literary Hub), Bryan Washington is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Recipient, the recipient of an Ernest J. Gaines Award, and the recipient of an O. Henry Award.
His stories and essays have appeared in
The New Yorker,
The New York Times,
BuzzFeed,
Vulture,
The Paris Review,
Tin House,
One Story,
GQ, among others.
Lot, Washington’s critically-acclaimed first collection of linked short stories, was released in 2019. Set in Houston – a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America – the book traces the coming-of-age of a young man growing up Black, Latino and gay.
Lot captures Houston’s culturally-rich yet gritty urban landscape, revealing the vulnerable existence of communities living under the shadow of poverty and violence with raw power and tenderness. Offering rare insight into what makes a community, a family, and a life, Lot explores trust and love in all its unsparing and unsteady forms.
The Guardian called Lot a “bruising, enthralling debut collection of interlinked tales portray[ing] precarious lives in Houston.” The New York Times called it “a profound exploration of the true meaning of borders, written very much for and about our current cultural moment.”
Read more here.