ReadingEast

Miami Book Fair is proud to present a third year of ReadingEast, a program featuring authors and conversations exploring Middle Eastern and South Asian experiences in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. ReadingEast reflects our vision of an inclusive, attentive, and sustainable community of writers, readers, and collaborators across all disciplines and cultures.

Upcoming Events

November 2025

Friday, November 21 @ 10:00 am
Room 2106 (Building 2, 1st Floor)
300 N.E. Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

Ladelle_Ebony

TEENS READ THE 2025 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS – ALL GENRES

The 2025 National Book Award-honored authors in young people’s literature – including María Dolores Águila, K. Ancrum, Daniel Nayeri, Hannah V. Sawyerr, Maria van Lieshout, and Ibi Zoboi – visit Miami Book Fair to share from and about their books, and answer questions from Miami-Dade County students. Hosted by Ebony LaDelle, author of You’ve Got a Place Here, Too: An Anthology of Black Love Stories Set at HBCUs and This Could Be Forever. For more information and to RSVP,

Saturday, November 22 @ 10:00 am
Auditorium (Building 1, 2nd Floor, Room 1261)
300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL 33132 United States

Naomi Shihab Nye

AN INVITATION TOWARD HOPE: NAOMI SHIHAB NYE & TRACY K. SMITH IN CONVERSATION – POETRY

Head down to the Fair by 9 a.m. to get free entry, a free cup of Joe and the best seats possible to see Naomi and Tracy! As an invitation toward meaning and connection, National Book Award finalist and former Young People’s Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will discuss how celebrations of joy, family, and poetry in their new books are fundamental to our capacities to love,…

Saturday, November 22 @ 10:00 am
Chapman Conference Center (Building 3, 2nd Floor, Room 3210)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

Lakshmi_Padma

ON PADMA’S ALL AMERICAN: TALES, TRAVELS, AND RECIPES FROM “TASTE THE NATION” AND BEYOND: A COOKBOOK – NONFICTION

A love letter to the people who create and evolve American cuisine every day, author and Emmy nominee Padma Lakshmi’s latest book is a road map to the foods that give America its vibrant palate. From Indian coconut rice and Peruvian tamales with chicken to Afghani dumplings with leeks and scallions – and a strawberry, cardamom, and cream cake that will be your new favorite celebration treat – Padma’s All American presents a joyful, kaleidoscopic view of the vast range of incredible dishes she’s delighted in tasting on her travels,…

Saturday, November 22 @ 11:00 am
Room 8301 (Building 8, 3rd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132 United States

Angela Flournoy

NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION PRESENTS: CELEBRATING THE 2025 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD HONOREES FOR FICTION – FICTION

Each fall, Miami Book Fair invites the authors and translators of 50 National Book Award longlisted titles to gather in Miami following the National Book Awards Ceremony in New York. Join the honorees in fiction – Angela Flournoy, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Megha Majumdar, Kevin Moffett, Karen Russell, and Ethan Rutherford – as they read from and discuss their books and answer your questions about writing,…

Saturday, November 22 @ 11:00 am
Room 8203 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132 United States

Daniel Tam-Claiborne

SECRETS, LIES & THINGS LOST IN TRANSLATION – FICTION

In Deeper than the Ocean: A Novel, Mirta Ojito tells a multigenerational tale that spins out of a chance finding. While on the Canary Islands, Mara Denis learns that her grandmother is among the dead in the shipwreck of the Valbanera, the “poor man’s Titanic.” But that was years before Mara’s mother was born – and suddenly everything Mara thought she knew about her family and herself is now in question. In Shobha Rao‘s Indian Country: A Novel,…

Saturday, November 22 @ 12:30 pm
Room 8203 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132 United States

Darrow Farr

WELL-BEHAVED WOMEN SELDOM MAKE HISTORY – FICTION

Aria Aber’s Good Girl: A Novel is a story of art, family, love, and survival. In Berlin’s underground of raves, art, and drugs, teenage Nila – born to Afghan parents and raised in graffiti-stained public housing – searches for her voice. Drawn into the orbit of Marlowe, a fading American writer, she tastes freedom but risks losing herself. As racial tensions rise, Nila must decide who she wants to be. In Darrow Farr’s The Bombshell: A Novel,…

Saturday, November 22 @ 2:00 pm
Room 8301 (Building 8, 3rd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132 United States

Nilo Tabrizy

NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION PRESENTS: CELEBRATING THE 2025 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD HONOREES FOR NONFICTION

Each fall, Miami Book Fair invites the authors and translators of 50 National Book Award longlisted titles to gather in Miami following the National Book Awards Ceremony in New York. Join the honorees in nonfiction – Caleb Gayle, Julia Ioffe, Lana Lin, Ben Ratliff, Claudia Rowe, Nilo Tabrizy, Jordan Thomas, and Helen Whybrow – as they read from and discuss their books and answer your questions about writing,…

Saturday, November 22 @ 2:00 pm
AI Center (Building 2, First Floor)
300 N.E. Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

Pria Anand

THE STRANGE FRONTIER OF THE MIND – NONFICTION

In The Mind Electric: A Neurologist on the Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains, neurologist Pria Anand reveals all that the medical establishment has dismissed, as often seen in the stories of women and Black, brown, displaced, and disempowered people. This collection of medical stories reflects the compelling paradox that even the most peculiar symptoms can show us something universal about ourselves. In Nightmare Obscura: A Dream Engineer’s Guide Through the Sleeping Mind, sleep expert Michelle Carr explores the science of dreaming,…

Saturday, November 22 @ 2:30 pm
Room 6100 (Building 6, 1st Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

Ivonne Lamazares

DESPERATION & THE SCARS OF UPHEAVAL: THREE STORIES – FICTION

In Ivonne Lamazares’ The Tilting House: A Novel, identity, family loyalty, and the scars of political upheaval wreak havoc when teenager Yuri, living in a Havana suburb with her strict and religious aunt, meets Mariela, a glamorous artist from the United States who claims to be her sister – and reveals shocking truths that upend life as she knows it. Set in a near-future Kolkata, India, ravaged by climate change and food scarcity, Megha Majumdar’s A Guardian and a Thief: A Novel tells two intertwined stories: Ma’s desperate search for the thief who has stolen long-awaited visas for America for her and her family;…

Saturday, November 22 @ 3:00 pm
Auditorium (Building 1, 2nd Floor, Room 1261)
300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, FL 33132 United States

Kiran Desai

TRACING INVISIBLE CURRENTS: MULTIGENERATIONAL STORIES – FICTION

Susan Choi’s Flashlight: A Novel traces the disappearance of Louisa’s father across time, nations, and memory, after a tragic summer night on the breakwater. Spanning decades and through shifting perspectives, Louisa and her mother navigate grief, estrangement, and family secrets – and the invisible currents that shape our lives. In Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A Novel, two young people first glimpse each other on an overnight train, bound by their grandparents’ failed matchmaking.…

Saturday, November 22 @ 4:00 pm
Room 6100 (Building 6, 1st Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

Tehia Hakimi

THE DARK DEPTH OF A WOMAN SCORNED – FICTION

Tehila Hakimi’s Hunting in America: A Novel tells the story of an Israeli woman who relocates to the United States on assignment from her tech company. Wanting to leave her past behind and adapt to American culture, she joins her colleagues on a deer hunt. As she takes up hunting, she is drawn into a world of predator, prey, and dark attraction. Lena, the central character in Ivy Pochoda’s Ecstasy: A Novel, wants her life back.…

Sunday, November 23 @ 12:00 pm
The Art Lab (Building 1, First Floor, Room 1101)
300 N.E. Second Avenue (Bldg. 1, 1st floor), Miami, 33132 United States

Vanessa Montalban_

CONSUME OR BE CONSUMED: YOUNG ADULT HORROR – FICTION

Careful what you wish for in Vanessa Montalban’s These Vengeful Wishes, in which a teen girl’s rage is ignited by a vengeful female spirit with a thirst for justice. The Summer I Ate The Rich by Maika Moulite & Maritza Moulite is a biting modern-day fable inspired by Haitian zombie lore that explores what happens when a Haitian American girl uses her previously hidden abilities to exact revenge on the wealthy elites who have caused her family pain.…

Sunday, November 23 @ 12:00 pm
Room 7128 (Building 7, 1st Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132 United States

Scott Anderson

ON IRAN, PAST & PRESENT – NONFICTION

In King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation, Scott Anderson traces the rise of religious nationalism, offering essential insights into today’s global unrest. With a spellbinding account of dictatorship, blind superpower, and world-shattering revolution, he delivers a bravura work of history and a warning for our time. Nilo Tabrizy and Fatemeh Jamalpour’s For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising documents the Woman, Life, Freedom movement,…

Sunday, November 23 @ 1:00 pm
Room 8303 (Building 8, 3rd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132 United States

Cathy-Linh Che

FIFTY YEARS AFTER THE VIETNAM WAR – FICTION, NONFICTION & POETRY

On the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, three authors discuss the challenges of telling the stories of their parents and lovers, examining love, loss, and identity across genres and generations. Becoming Ghost documents Cathy Linh Che’s parents’ experiences as refugees who escaped the Vietnam War and then were cast as extras in Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now, placing them at the margins of their own story. The 14 pieces in Andrew Lam’s Stories from the Edge of the Sea explore love and loss,…

Sunday, November 23 @ 1:00 pm
The Art Lab (Building 1, First Floor, Room 1101)
300 N.E. Second Avenue (Bldg. 1, 1st floor), Miami, 33132 United States

WRITING HISTORY & HEROES: MIDDLE GRADE FICTION

One summer. Forty-six mountain peaks. A second chance to make things right. In The Trouble with Heroes, Kate Messner takes readers on a heart-filling journey as a seventh grade boy finds his path to healing. The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story by Daniel Nayeri is the harrowing true story of two orphans on a treacherous journey across mountains to bring education to isolated children with a chalkboard and a satchel full of textbooks.…

Sunday, November 23 @ 4:00 pm
Room 8201 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

Caldwell_Chloe

STARDOM, SEXUALITY & DISSOCIATION: THREE MEMOIRS

Chloé Caldwell’s Trying: A Memoir is one woman’s story told through selective journaling: her struggle with infertility, the dissolution of her marriage – and an eventual reawakening to her long-buried desires and queer identity. Throughout, Caldwell kept writing, making sense of her new reality in real time. She captures the continuous process of becoming and the mysterious ways that writing informs that process. As a child, Atash Yaghmaian endured terrors at home and outside, as Iran was on fire.…

Sunday, November 23 @ 5:00 pm
Room 2106 (Building 2, 1st Floor)
300 N.E. Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

Ismail_Aymann

FATHERS & SONS: STORIES OF RESILIENCE, SURVIVAL & LOVE – NONFICTION

In Becoming Baba: Fatherhood, Faith, and Finding Meaning in America, Aymann Ismail shares his journey as the son of Egyptian immigrants, coming of age as a Muslim in the shadow of 9/11. As he builds a career in political journalism and starts his own family, Ismail reckons with religion, masculinity, and inheritance, asking what it means to be a Muslim man – and a father – in America. Julian Brave NoiseCat’s We Survived the Night interweaves oral history,…

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Past Events

November 2024

Sunday, November 24, 2024 @ 5:00 pm
Room 8201 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

SEEKING HOME – FICTION

RACHEL KHONG’s Real Americans: A Novel spans generations of one family, from early 2000s New York City, where young and broke Lily Chen falls for dashing Matthew, to 2021, when 15-year-old Nick Chen searches for his biological father, a journey that produces more questions than answers. In DINAW MENGESTU’s Someone Like Us: A Novel, after abandoning his once-promising career as a journalist in search of a new life in Paris, Mamush found love and created a family with Hannah,…

Sunday, November 24, 2024 @ 2:30 pm
Room 8202 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132 United States

LIVING YOUR BEST QUEER LIFE – MEMOIR

Manboobs: A Memoir of Musicals, Visas, Hope, and Cake is KOMAIL AIJAZUDDIN’s story of courage, love, and bravery. Growing up in Pakistan, ashamed of his body and knowing he was different, he believed his only chance at happiness existed in a gay-friendly America. But after arriving in a post-9/11 world, he was forced to navigate prejudice and self-doubt in his quest for a meaningful life. In his part memoir-in-essays, part cultural critique Mean Boys: A Personal History, queer Chinese American writer GEOFFREY MAK speaks of boys wielding cruelty to claim their place in the pecking order.…

Sunday, November 24, 2024 @ 2:00 pm
AI Center (Building 2, First Floor)
300 N.E. Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

FINANCE & TECH: INSIDERS’ VIEWS – NONFICTION

With an insider perspective on the insanity of high finance and venture investing, The Money Trap: Lost Illusions Inside the Tech Bubble follows ALOK SAMA’s journey as chief dealmaker at the most influential technology investor in the world, SoftBank, alongside its iconic founder, Masayoshi Son. Ultimately a morality tale, The Money Trap reminds us that in life – and technology investing – more money isn’t always the answer.  The sole assistant to the billionaire founder of one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world,…

Sunday, November 24, 2024 @ 1:00 pm
The Art Lab (Building 1, First Floor, Room 1101)
300 N.E. Second Avenue (Bldg. 1, 1st floor), Miami, 33132 United States

“FANTASY FEMINOMENON” – MIDDLE GRADE FANTASY

Believing in yourself is hard enough without saving the whole world on top of it all! Find out how much Amari is willing to sacrifice to stop a war between the Magicians and the Bureau in the action-packed third installment of B. B. ALSTON’s bestselling Supernatural Investigations series, Amari and the Despicable Wonders. RYAN GRAUDIN’s The Girl Who Kept the Castle introduces Faye, a maid for the late Wizard West, who must help him find a successor,…

Sunday, November 24, 2024 @ 12:30 pm
Room 8201 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

FOUR VOICES ON SAFETY & SURVIVAL – FICTION

In ELYSHA CHANG’s A Quitter’s Paradise, a young woman does everything she can to ignore her mother’s death, even as memories surface of her cold, strict upbringing with immigrant parents. How do you love a person who refused to make herself known? In CRYSTAL HANA KIM’s The Stone Home: A Novel, Eunju and her mother are living on the street in South Korea when they’re captured and sent to a state-sanctioned facility – a reformatory hiding a violent reality.…

Sunday, November 24, 2024 @ 12:00 pm
Room 2106 (Building 2, 1st Floor)
300 N.E. Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

LIVES MARKED BY PROFOUND UNCERTAINTY – MEMOIR

I Will Do Better: A Father’s Memoir of Heartbreak, Parenting, and Love is CHARLES BOCK’s frank, tender memoir of parenting his young daughter while dealing with immense grief in the wake of his wife’s untimely death. In Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones: A Memoir, PRIYANKA MATTOO chronicles her search for home across 40 years and 32 addresses. From leaving her beloved Kashmir as a child amid mounting violence and finding – and losing – friendships in a Saudi Arabian compound to finally settling in Los Angeles,…

Sunday, November 24, 2024 @ 11:00 am
Room 8201 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

All HAPPY FAMILIES ARE ALIKE – FICTION

In CRIS ASCUNCE’s My Best Plan: A Novel, Gene has it all – a wonderful daughter, a flourishing career, and the love of her life, Isa. After same-sex marriage is legalized in Spain, Gene has an idea: move there, marry, and finally secure parental rights for her daughter. But Isa refuses, and Gene must make a decision that puts their love to the test. A.J. BERMUDEZ’s Stories No One Hopes Are About Them explores convergences of power,…

Saturday, November 23, 2024 @ 2:00 pm
Room 8202 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132 United States

CULTURAL WELLNESS: MIND, BODY & SOUL – NONFICTION

But What Will People Say?: Navigating Mental Health, Identity, Love, and Family Between Cultures rethinks traditional therapy and self-care. SAHAJ KAUR KOHLI, MA.ED, LGPC, weaves personal narrative, anecdotal analysis, and comprehensive research, offering tools to navigate generational trauma, guilt, and boundaries, and breaking down stigmas around therapy as she celebrates cultural duality. RAQUEL REICHARD’s Self-Care for Latinas: 100+ Ways to Prioritize & Rejuvenate Your Mind, Body, & Spirit offers more than 100 exercises for wellness,…

Saturday, November 23, 2024 @ 1:30 pm
Room 8203 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132 United States

NOT VERY DEMURE, NOT VERY MINDFUL: WOMEN ON THE VERGE – FICTION

In POROCHISTA KHAKPOUR’s Tehrangeles: A Novel, the Iranian American Milani family has it all – an L.A. mansion, a snack empire, and four spirited daughters: aspiring model Violet, chaotic influencer Roxanna, online overachiever Mina, and impressionable health fanatic Haylee. But on the verge of landing a reality TV show, the family realizes they all have something to hide. In My First Book, a collection of stories by HONOR LEVY, characters grapple with formative political, existential,…

Saturday, November 23, 2024 @ 12:30 pm
Room 8203 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132 United States

UNSUNG HEROES & CLASS DIVIDES – FICTION

CRISTINA HENRIQUEZ’s The Great Divide: A Novel is the story of one of the most impressive feats in engineering history: the construction of the Panama Canal. It explores the intersecting lives of activists, fishmongers, laborers, journalists, neighbors, doctors, and soothsayers – those who did the grueling work and have yet rarely been acknowledged by history. In RUTHVIKA RAO’s The Fertile Earth: A Novel, Vijaya, daughter of ancestral aristocrats whose power over their villagers is absolute,…

Saturday, November 23, 2024 @ 11:00 am
Room 8202 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fl 33132 United States

ZARA CHOWDHARY ON ANTI-MUSLIM VIOLENCE – MEMOIR

The Lucky Ones: A Memoir is a moving personal story from ZARA CHOWDHARY, a survivor of anti-Muslim violence in contemporary India. Tracing a multigenerational Muslim family back to India’s brave but bloody origins, it offers a glimpse into the precious, everyday lives of contemporary Muslims who are under siege but still offer grace as the world outside – and their place in it – falls apart. Joining her in conversation is author and journalist MEENA AHAMED.…

Saturday, November 23, 2024 @ 10:00 am
The Pavilion
NE Second Ave. at NE Third St. FL 33132 United States

SMART, POLITICAL & SUBVERSIVE – FICTION

Grappling with violence and grief after the loss of his parents, Cyrus is an addict and a poet whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past in KAVEH AKBAR’s Martyr! A Novel. VINSON CUNNINGHAM’s Great Expectations: A Novel spans 18 months in the life of David, working on a senator’s campaign to become the first Black U.S. president and coming to terms with his identity as a young Black man and father.…

November 2023

Sunday, November 19, 2023 @ 1:00 pm
Room 8201 (Building 8, 2nd Floor)
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132 United States

GOTHIC MAGIC & DARK DESIRES

Set at a Victorian London circus, AMIEE GIBBS‘ The Carnivale of Curiosities: A Novel is a tale of Faustian bargains, jealousy, and murder, where for the right price, any wish may be granted. In DEENA MOHAMED’s Shubeik Lubeik, three wishes sold at an unassuming Cairo kiosk link three people, changing their perspectives as well as their lives. Buy The Carnivale of Curiosities: A Novel. – Gibbs Buy Shubeik Lubeik. – Mohamed…

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