Reading Groups

Novelists Writing Novelists with Sullivan Summer

Clear

3 Sessions Mondays, 6:30 pm EDT - 8:00 pm EDT May 4 to June 22, 2026

Online via Zoom

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The ‘With Books’ option includes the titles required for this group at a 10% discount from our Bookstore.

Meeting Dates:
5/4, 6/1, 6/22
Online via Zoom

The line between truth and storytelling, pathology, perception, and performance is anyone’s best guess in these metafictional novels with unreliable narrators. This ouroboros of a reading group is for those who enjoy a healthy debate about truth disguised as fiction, fiction disguised as realism, and the real lies we tell ourselves—and one another—in search of a greater truth.

R. F. Kuang’s Yellowface explores a novel of identity in storytelling, the same topic tackled on the page and on the screen in Danzy Senna’s Colored Television. And, more than a decade before “fake news,” journalist Stephen Glass (the author, not the character, but maybe both) conjured up just that in his stranger-than-fiction novel, The Fabulist. Together, these three novels introduce us to novelists writing novels you have to read to believe (or not…).

Reading List:

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
Colored Television by Danzy Senna
The Fabulist by Stephen Glass

What to read in advance of the first meeting: Please read R. F. Kuang’s Yellowface in its entirety in advance of the first meeting.

What to expect from this reading group: A lively, participant-led discussion with supplemental and background information provided by the (mostly truthful) instructor, as relevant.

Pricing inclusive of sales tax if applicable. Please note: All virtual classes are recorded. Please click here for information about our recording policy.

Led by

Sullivan Summer

Sullivan Summer

Sullivan Summer is an independent scholar, and freelance critic, essayist, poet, and podcaster. Her work across genres has been published in popular, literary, and academic outlets, and her pop culture hot takes and author interviews can be heard on the Adoption Pop! and New Books Network podcasts. Her chapbook, Performance Anxiety, was published in 2025 by Black Sunflowers Poetry Press, and she is a 2025 “Best of the Net” anthology nominee. When not reading, writing, and podcasting about reading and writing, you can find her engaging with visitors to The New York Historical, the City’s oldest museum, where she is a Docent.

About this series

Reading Groups

Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

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