Reading Groups

Revisionist Genre with Donna Raskin

4 Monthly Sessions Fridays, 7:00 pm EDT - 8:30 pm EDT September 16 to December 9, 2022

Online via Zoom

The ‘With Book’ option includes all titles required for this reading group at a 10% discount.

Meeting Dates:
9/16, 10/14, 11/11, 12/9

A Stranger Comes to Town. The Meet Cute. Genre novelists rely on conventions to fit their books into a category, but literary writers utilize the strengths of genre in order to surprise readers with complicated characters and what-happens-next storylines. What if the romantic leads could never live happily ever after? What if the spy is a second-class citizen in her own country? The Revisionist Genre book group will explore the characteristics of four genres while we read and discuss four literary novels that successfully play with—and exceed—the tropes. Understanding and appreciating genre can expand the literary reader’s world, as the best of these books break open their categories.

Participants should read Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell in advance of the first session.

Session I: Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell (Western)
Session II: A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes (Mystery)
Session III: Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman (Romance)
Session IV: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (Espionage)

Led by

Donna Raskin

Donna Raskin

A freelance magazine and book writer and editor, Donna Raskin is also an adjunct professor of writing at The College of New Jersey. Her reading groups at The Center for Fiction have covered setting, food, and villains, and she is looking forward to discussing romance novels that do not feature marriage as the only option for a happy ending.

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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