Mission & History

Our mission is to support readers and writers of all ages and histories, and to build community through fiction.

From our vibrant home in Downtown Brooklyn, we offer a wide range of programming for local and national audiences. Through our Events, Reading Groups, Library, and Bookstore, we inspire readers to explore classic and contemporary literature. In our Workshops and Writers Studio, emerging and established writers hone their craft and develop new work. Our Fellowships and Awards champion fresh talent and celebrate excellence in fiction. Through our KidsRead programs with New York City public schools, we foster a lifelong love of books for our youngest readers.

We bring together a diverse community to discover, create, and share imaginative work—cultivating genuine connection among the readers and writers who engage with our programs. We ensure a strong future for fiction—one rooted in its ability to expand our understanding of ourselves, each other, and the world.

Founded eighty-two years before the New York Public Library began, The Center for Fiction has played a vital role in the literary life of New York City for over 200 years.

When the Mercantile Library of New York opened its doors at 49 Fulton Street in February 1821, James Monroe had just begun his second term as president of the United States. New York City had either 123,000 or 152,000 inhabitants, depending on which census you believe, and the population of the entire United States numbered only 9.6 million. It was a year that marked the death of Napoleon, the coronation of George IV, and the entry of Missouri into the union as a slave state. American writer James Fenimore Cooper published The Spy while in England readers pored over Thomas de Quincey’s new book, Confessions of an Opium Eater. Keats died and Baudelaire was born…