Bright Lines author Tanwi Nandini Islam in conversation with TWF lit director J.R. Ramakrishnan Nov. 19

Author Tanwi Nandini Islam will present her new novel, Bright Lines, at an event featuring conversation with J.R. Ramakrishnan at 6 p.m. on Thursday, November 19, at the Garden District Book Shop (2727 Prytania St.).

The Denver Post called Islam’s debut novel “A Brooklyn-by-way-of-Bangladesh Royal Tenenbaums. A pot-tinged, PTSD Muslim Sesame Street. With sex. Hallucinations, hijabs and handlebars on the always-busy Atlantic Avenue.”

Meanwhile, Kiese Laymon said it’s “the most daring, emotionally dense work I’ve ever read by a debut novelist. I can’t remember the last time a novel kept me breathless, wandering and reconsidering the decisions of my own life. Bright Lines is brilliant and absolutely soulful.”

Tanwi Nandini Islam is the author of the novel Bright Lines, which is a finalist for the 2015 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her work has appeared in Elle.com, Fashionista, The Feminist Wire, Hyphen, and Open City. She is the founder of Hi Wildflower Botanica, a small-batch candle and perfume line. She lives in Brooklyn.

J.R. Ramakrishnan is the Director of Literary Programs for the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. Her journalism has appeared in Style.com, Harper’s Bazaar, Chicago Tribune, and Grazia, amongst other publications. She has also translated for Harper’s Magazine.

Read an interview with Islam at Electric Literature and a piece of reportage she wrote on VICE.