Write in Brooklyn, the annual literary discussion series hosted by the St. Francis College M.F.A. program in creative writing, opened on July 8 with a conversation between Isaac Fitzgerald and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah that focused on “writing, breaking into writing and telling the stories you want to tell.”

Fitzgerald is the author of the bestselling children’s book How to Be a Pirate and co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos, winner of an International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Award. His debut memoir, Dirtbag, Massachusetts, is forthcoming later this month.

Adjei-Brenyah is the author of Friday Black. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous publications, including the New York Times Book Review, Esquire, The Paris Review and Guernica. He was selected by Colson Whitehead as one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honorees and is the winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award as well as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for Best First Book and the Aspen Words Literary Prize.

Write in Brooklyn features prominent writers representing a range of literary genres. All events in this year’s series (see below) will be held on the St. Francis College campus at 180 Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights. They are free and open to the public.

• July 8, 6-8 pm
  Isaac Fitzgerald in Conversation with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
• July 9, 3-5 pm
  Q&A with Jason Starr, Author of The Next Time I Die
• July 14, 4-6 pm
  Reading of St. Francis College M.F.A. Candidate’s Thesis (TBD)
• July 15, 4-6 pm
  Talk with Marlon James, Author and St. Francis College Lecturer
• July 16, 6-8 pm
  Reading of “Blue in Green”: Thesis Play by St. Francis College M.F.A. Candidate Shantez Tolbut