Join us at 7:00 PM on Friday, January 20, at New Dominion Bookshop (404 E. Main St.) for the January Charlottesville Reading Series event, featuring poet Amy-Sarah Marshall and prose writer Sofia Samatar. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.

Amy-Sarah Marshall writes poetry, plays, children’s stories, and fiction in Charlottesville, VA. She graduated with an MFA in poetry from George Mason University and has published poems in the Wisconsin Review, So to Speak, Streetlight, The Dewdrop, Phoebe, Brooklyn Review, Diner, and other journals. In her day job, Amy-Sarah has worked as a web writer, editor, and content strategist, creating award-winning infographics and blog stories. A passionate activist, Amy-Sarah served on the Charlottesville Human Rights Commission and as founding president of the Charlottesville Pride Community Network, an LGBTQ+ community nonprofit. Currently, Amy-Sarah directs SafeCville, providing safe-space trainings to businesses, nonprofits, schools, and medical establishments throughout the area. She lives with her wife, two children, two dogs, and two cats.

Sofia Samatar is the author of the novels A Stranger in Olondria and The Winged Histories, the short story collection Tender, and the hybrid genre Monster Portraits. Her recent memoir, The White Mosque, is a prismatic record of her journey through Uzbekistan and of the strange shifts, encounters, and accidents that combine to create an identity. Sofia’s work has received the William L. Crawford Award, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, the British Fantasy Award, and the World Fantasy Award. She has also been a finalist for the Locus Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Italo Calvino Prize. Sofia holds a PhD in African languages and literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and she currently teaches African literature, Arabic literature in translation, world literature, and speculative fiction at James Madison University.