ROOM 220 PRESENTS: T. Geronimo Johnson, Khaled al-Berry, and Lucy Fricke reading LIVE PROSE AT MELVIN’S

Room 220 is pleased to present the first installation of this fall’s LIVE PROSE reading series with T. Geronimo Johnson, Khaled al-Berry, and Lucy Fricke at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 27 at Melvin’s (2112 St. Claude Ave.).

T. Geronimo Johnson is a New Orleans native and author of the novel Hold It ‘Til It Hurts, which follows its army veteran protagonist from Afghanistan to Maryland to New Orleans to Atlanta, beneath the crush of recently revealed information about his biological parents and in search of his brother, who has disappeared in New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina bears down. This first novel from Johnson, who teaches writing at the University of California, Berkeley, is as dense and nuanced as it is moving.

Read an essay/interview on Hold It ‘Til It Hurts by Kristina Robinson.

Khaled al-Berry is an Egyptian novelist and journalist who currently lives in London. His celebrated memoir, Life is More Beautiful Than Paradise, tells the story of his growing up in Egypt and becoming an adolescent jihadist. His 2010 novel, A Middle Eastern Dance, was shortlisted for the Arabic Booker Prize. Read a review of Life is More Beautiful Than Paradise in the London Independent.

Lucy Fricke is a German novelist and former television and film scriptwriter who lives in Berlin. She is the author of novels Thirst is Worse Than Homesickness and I Brought Friends (sadly, neither is translated into English, but she will read in English!). Fricke has organized literary events for the Berlin International Poetry Festival, the Leipzig Book Fair, and currently directs the HAM.LIT festival in Hamburg (which, we imagine, is probably the Hamburg equivalent of Room 220‘s LIVE PROSE series, but better, and with funding).

al-Berry and Fricke will be reading courtesy of Room 220‘s partnership with the International Writer’s Program at the University of Iowa, which brings its esteemed participants from across the globe on a field trip each year to New Orleans. al-Berry participates in the IWP courtesy of the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, and Fricke courtesy of the Max Kade Foundation.