Reading: Tony Tulathimutte
Prairie Lights — Thurs., May 7 at 2 p.m.
Novelist and Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Tony Tulathimutte will read from his debut novel, Private Citizens (William Morrow Paperbacks), tonight at 7 p.m. at Prairie Lights Bookstore.
Tulathimutte is looking forward to reading at the beloved local bookstore. “I spent more time in Prairie Lights than any place in Iowa City besides George’s and my couch,” said Tulathimutte, “Their coffee is way better than it has to be and deserves a ghostwriting credit for my book.”
Private Citizens is a comedy of manners set in a San Francisco on the brink of the current tech boom. Jeffery Gleaves of The Paris Review called the novel “[A] hilarious portrait of youthful self-centeredness.”
“I’m frequently turned off by young writers who try to capture contemporary speech patterns because they so often miss the mark,” said Gleaves, “but Tulathimutte’s old-school social realism gives his characters an enduring, three-dimensional verisimilitude that makes me inclined to forgive them nearly everything, including how obnoxious they are.”
Tulathimutte’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, VICE, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New Republic, N+1, Playboy, and The Paris Review. His work has earned him an O Henry Award as well as a fellowship from The MacDowell Colony.
Last week Tulathimutte talked about his debut on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Myers.
