TOC Reading Series: Assadi! Sayed! Thompson-Spires!

Readers of Content, We're back for our November reading, joined by Bobuq Sayed, Hannah Lillith Assadi, and Nafissa Thompson-Spires. Join us on November 16th at Insa! Hannah Lillith Assadi is the author of Sonora (Soho 2017), which received the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize. Her second novel The Stars Are Not Yet Bells (Riverhead 2022) was named a New Yorker and NPR best book of 2022. Her third novel Paradiso 17, inspired by the life of her late Palestinian father, is forthcoming from Knopf on March 17, 2026. She teaches fiction at the Columbia University School of the Arts and the Pratt Institute. In 2018, she was named a '5 under 35' honoree by the National Book Foundation. Bobuq Sayed is a cultural worker of the Afghan diaspora. They are the author of A Brief History of Australian Terror, a chapbook of essays published by Common Room editions. Their debut novel, No God but Us, is forthcoming in May 2026 with Harper Books. A 2022-23 Steinbeck fellow at San José State University, Sayed is also the co-editor of the anthology Nothing to Hide: Voices of Trans and Gender Diverse Australia (Allen and Unwin). Nafissa Thompson-Spires is the author of the award-winning, National Book Award longlisted short story collection, Heads of the Colored People. She earned a doctorate in English from ­­­­Vanderbilt University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from ­­­­­­the University of Illinois. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in The Paris Review Daily, New York Magazine’s “The Cut,” The Root, The White Review, Ploughshares, 400 Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019, and The 1619 Project, among other publications. Each ticket includes three small dishes inspired by the passages and one complimentary drink. Additional drinks will be available for purchase. Our friends Sammi and Olivia of Cocktails in Color will be mixing up cocktails inspired by our three authors' books, so you'll want to make room for a couple! We do have a handful of seats reserved for sliding-scale admission to keep these events as financially accessible as possible. Please let us know if this ticket price is prohibitive for you and we’ll find a way to get you a seat at the table. These sliding scale seats are limited, so please be thoughtful about your resources and needs when making a request. For more information on physical accessibility at Insa or any other questions, please write us at biscuits@tablesofcontents.org. We can accommodate gluten-free and vegetarian diets with advance notice. If you have other restrictions or aversions you are of course still encouraged to attend, you just may not be able to partake in every course. Please be sure to notify us of any serious allergies in advance and remind us at the event. Doors will open at 6:40 so feel free to come a few minutes early to grab a drink and get settled. See you all November 16th at Insa! —TOC