2026/2027 Inprint Brown Reading Series Begins August 24, 2026
Acclaimed Italian novelist Andrea Bajani and award-winning author Claire Vaye Watkins set to appear
Inprint, Houston’s premier literary arts nonprofit organization, presents Strega Prize winner Andrea Bajani and Guggenheim Fellow Claire Vaye Watkins on Monday, August 24, 2026, 7:30 pm as part of the 2026/2027 Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series. The event will be held at Congregation Emanu El, 1500 Sunset Boulevard, Houston, TX 77005.
Bajani and Watkins will read from their new novels The Anniversary and Yellow Pine, respectively, followed by an on-stage conversation led by National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Lacy M. Johnson. The event will conclude with a book signing in the lobby.
Andrea Bajani is one of the most recognized and lauded authors of contemporary Italian and European literature. His many novels include If You Kept a Record of Sins, called “astonishing” by The New York Times, and Every Promise, which won the Bagutta Prize, the oldest Italian literary prize. A self-described existential writer, he often examines the personal, philosophical, and political, while confronting the unanswerable. A professor and international writer-in-residence at Rice University, Bajani will share the new English translation of his latest novel, The Anniversary, which won the 2025 Strega Prize, one of Europe’s major literary awards. Currently being translated into more than 25 languages, The Anniversary is a subtle yet heartrending portrait of an abusive marriage in patriarchal Italy and a son’s liberating decision to cut contact with his parents.
Claire Vaye Watkins has been called “the most riveting voice of the unsalvageable West” (Los Angeles Times). Her debut novel Gold Fame Citrus, inspired by the Californian drought and by the lives of outcasts in the desert, blends climate fiction with environmental history. Watkins is also the author of the novel I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness and the short story collection Battleborn, winner of the Story Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. A National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree and a Guggenheim Fellow, Watkins comes to Houston with her newest work Yellow Pine, described by author Megha Majumdar as “an exhilarating novel about a woman in the Mojave desert who wants to be a mother one more time, wants to love freely and arrange her life freely, wants to live outside the maze of money and ads and being sold to, a novel with huge and electric convictions.”
General admission tickets are $5 and on sale now. Season tickets are also available. Free tickets for students and senior citizens are available by request. Books will be on sale at a discount at the event through Brazos Bookstore. For tickets and more information, visit inprint.org or call 713.521.2026.