This week marks the Book Expo America, a major publishing event taking place in the Javits Center. If a conference center isn’t really your speed, you can still capitalize on the authors in town for the expo without even having to leave the borough. On Tuesday night, powerHouse Arena is hosting a book party for Knopf, the literary juggernaut currently publishing some of the most buzzed-about authors. Four of those authors will be appearing at the party, to read from their newest books and answer any questions you can throw at them. The notable literati include Karen Russell, whose novel Swamplandia! was the hot subway read when it came out last year; Jim Shepard, novelist and short story writer whose most recent collection, Like You’d Understand, Anyway, takes a first-person view of complicated relationships set in a variety of periods and places; Ben Marcus, whose novel The Flame Alphabet is coming out in January 2012; and Sloane Crosley, whose humorous essay collection I Was Told There’d Be Cake is in development at HBO.
