The Writer’s Center presents a FREE virtual chat about the craft of fiction! We’re joined by author Tayyba Kanwal for a discussion of her new story collection, Talking with Boys. Tayyba is in conversation with Brandon Johnson, poet and Events Director at The Writer’s Center.

RSVP below to receive login information (our virtual events are held via Zoom). FREE and open to the public, all times Eastern

We encourage you to order a copy of the book from your local, independent bookseller or online from Bookshop.org »

Tayyba Kanwal is a Pakistani-American writer, Senior Editor at Conjunctions., and Associate Fiction Editor at Cutleaf Journal. An absconded mathematician and technologist, a lover of lizards and morbid illustrations, she is Literary Director at Inprint. She holds an MFA from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program where she was an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow, and an MS in Mathematics from the University of Oregon.

About the Book

A community of Pakistani immigrants in Houston distract ICE with unlikely bait. A housekeeper in a Dubai mansion plots to liberate her fellow indentured workers. In Lahore, an empty-nester finds herself bound by more than the jinxed bracelet her adult son has gifted her. Talking with Boys is a collection of linked stories filled with irony, humor, and magic. Spanning generations and continents—from Lahore to Dubai to Houston—these characters navigate economic upheavals, political turmoil, and personal betrayals. Amid crises both imposed and self-inflicted, the people in these stories pursue love, plot for survival and play subtle power games to triumph against patriarchal forces of all genders.

If you need an accommodation for this event, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.

Enjoying our free events? Help us offer more programs to support writers with a $10 donation »