Symphony Space Presents Thalia Book Club Salon With Ayad Akhtar

Symphony Space will present Thalia Book Club Salon: Ayad Akhtar in Conversation with You, Thursday, June 3, at 7pm EST. In this live event, held over Zoom, the award-winning author and President of PEN America discusses his most recent novel, Homeland Elegies, with a public audience limited to 30 tickets.

Admission is $22 for Symphony Space members and $25 for non-members and can be purchased here. Running time is approximately 60 minutes.

Ayad Akhtar's celebrated body of work spans books, plays, and screenplays. It is no surprise, then, that his most recent novel is an exploration of form. Homeland Elegies is part family drama, part social essay, and part picaresque novel, and blends fact and fiction to tell a deeply personal story about identity and belonging in America. The book is out in paperback on May 25.

Among many other prestigious accolades, Ayad Akhtar has won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the author of American Dervish, published in more than twenty languages and named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2012. As a playwright, he has written Junk (Lincoln Center, Broadway; Kennedy Prize for American Drama, Tony nomination), Disgraced (Lincoln Center, Broadway; Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony nomination), The Who & The What (Lincoln Center), and The Invisible Hand (NYTW; Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award, Olivier, and Evening Standard nominations). As a screenwriter, Akhtar was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for The War Within. He is the recipient of the Steinberg Playwriting Award, the Nestroy Award, and the Erwin Piscator Award, as well as fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, MacDowell, The Sundance Institute, and Yaddo, where he serves as a Board Director. Akhtar is also a Board Trustee at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and New York Theatre Workshop.

About Symphony Space

Symphony Space is a multi-disciplinary performing arts center where bold programming, presented in a uniquely warm and welcoming environment, forges indelible relationships between artists and audiences.

Symphony Space's fundamental mission is to connect art, ideas, and community through their performances and their commitment to literacy and education through the arts. Known for an array of ground-breaking programs, including the immersive Wall to Wall concerts, the Selected Shorts literature-in-performance series, and their innovative Global Arts education initiative, Symphony Space presents a full slate of original, affordable (and free) programming within New York City and in communities throughout the country through tours, public radio broadcasts, podcasts, and virtual events. On their stages and in the classrooms they serve, Symphony Space fosters access to the arts through all the disciplines.

Symphony Space was founded in the belief that the arts bring people together, transcend barriers, and celebrate both our similarities and differences. Through adventurous and impactful performances, commissions, and conversations, Symphony Space continues to invigorate these guiding principles, harnessing the power of the arts to engage, inspire, and build community.

For more information, visit symphonyspace.org or call 212-864-5400. Symphony Space is located at 2537 Broadway at 95th Street.