Hawthornden Brooklyn in Conversation: Megan Cummins with Sidik Fofana

Megan Cummins's Atomic Hearts follows sixteen year-old Gertie from her teen years to adulthood and back again, as she navigates relationships with friends and family marked by addiction and loss, but also by humor and kindness. Set mostly in Michigan and South Dakota, this is, according to Publishers Weekly in a starred review, "a gritty coming-of-age drama and an insightful story about the nature of writing." Megan will discuss her book with Brooklyn author and teacher Sidik Fofana.

Taylor & Co. Books will have the authors' books available for sale.

Doors open at 6:00 PM. Space is limited. Exact location will be shared via a reminder email two days before the event. You will only receive this email if you RSVP.

If you will need accessible seating, or have any other questions, please email brooklyn@hawthornden.org. You can learn more about Hawthornden Brooklyn here.

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Megan Cummins is the author of two books, the story collection If the Body Allows It (University of Nebraska Press), which was longlisted for the Story Prize and the PEN/Bingham Award, and the novel Atomic Hearts (Ballantine). She lives in Brooklyn, where she is the managing editor of Public Books and an editor-at-large at A Public Space. She was a 2023 Hawthornden Fellow at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland.

Sidik Fofana is a graduate of NYU’s MFA program and a public school teacher in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in the Sewanee Review and Granta, and he was named a fellow at the Center for Fiction in 2018. Stories from the Tenants Downstairs, his debut short story collection composed of eight narratives about residents of a fictional building in Harlem, was published by Scribner in 2022. He has also collaborated with Hawthornden Brooklyn on the Young Writers' Workshops, a summer writing program for New York City public high school students.