Pen Parentis Downtown Literary Salons Resume September 10 At LMHQ

To be American has always been synonymous with Freedom-but is that true today? What does freedom mean? Find out what authors Renee Simms, Virginia Hartman, and Jess DeCourcy Hinds have to say on the topic and how they adapt a traditional sense of freedom to a modern reality. Each writer will read from new work, and readings will be followed by a moderated roundtable and audience discussion.

This season Pen Parentis is delighted to announce a new partnership with LMHQ, an event and workspace run by the Downtown Alliance in Lower Manhattan. Starting in September, Pen Parentis Salons will be held in LMHQ's main event space on the 20th floor of 150 Broadway, three blocks south of Fulton Street. Refreshments will be complimentary.

Featured Readers on Tuesday, September 10th at 7 pm:

Renee Simms' writing appears in Callaloo, Oxford American, Ecotone, Literary Hub, Southwest Review, North American Review, The Rumpus, and Salon. She's received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Bread Loaf, Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, Kimbilio, PEN Center, and Cave Canem. Renee's debut story collection is Meet Behind Mars. She is an associate professor of African American Studies at University of Puget Sound.

2019 Pushcart Prize nominee Virginia Hartman has published work in the Hudson Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Potomac Review, Liars League NYC, Washingtonian, Delmarva Review, and Beltway Poetry Quarterly. She is the co-editor of A More Perfect Union: Poems and Stories about the Modern Wedding. She is on the creative writing faculty at George Washington University.

Jess deCourcy Hinds was the 2014-15 Pen Parentis Writing Fellow. She won second prize in the 2017 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize. Her writing has appeared in Quarterly West, The Rumpus, LitHub, Ms. magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, Reuters.com, Seventeen and Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers.

Celebrating ten years of Downtown literary salons, Pen Parentis is a 501c3 literary nonprofit that helps writers stay on creative track after starting a family. The series aims to shatter the negative stereotype of what parents can write by presenting the highest quality of diverse creative writing. Columbia MFA graduates, M. M. De Voe and Christina Chiu will moderate. There is no admission charge, though a voluntary $10 donation to Pen Parentis is warmly appreciated.

You do not have to be a parent or a writer to enjoy these neighborhood book events. RSVP is strongly recommended: penparentis.org/calendar

Transportation info: 2/3 or 4/5 to Fulton Street

This PEN PARENTIS LITERARY SALON is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. All local nonprofits can apply for a Con Edison Bright Ideas Grant for use of LMHQ's tech-friendly meeting space as well as the Tesla, LMHQ's largest conference room.