News & Events

Stay updated with the latest news

Other events (including a podcast) are in the works, so keep checking back.  Also, for immediate notice of a new event, contact Alex via the Contact page of this website to be added to his email list.

REPORT ON LAUNCH EVENTS:
There were five launch events and each was a huge success, in terms of attendance and by the fun time had by all.  Below are photos from the events at D’Amico’s, at the Wood’s in Clinton Hill, at Bourbeau’s place at 1776 Boston Road, Bronx, and at An Beal Bocht in Riverdale. Unfortunately, we forgot to take photos at the event held at the Bay Terrace branch of the Queens Public Library.

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Photo 2 from Bronx event

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The following events are presently scheduled around the launch of Where’s…Eli?:

Sunday, December 8, 2019, at 3 pm at D’Amico’s Coffee, 309 Court Street (Brooklyn)

Thursday, December 12, 2019, at 6 pm at the 2nd floor commercial space at 1776 (Boston Road,  Bronx, NY)

Saturday, February 8, 2020, at 2 pm  at the Bay Terrace branch of the Queens (Public Library, 18-36 Bell Blvd, Bayside, Queens, NY)

Other events are in the works, so keep checking back for new events and also for news about the events.  Also, for immediate notice of a new event, contact Alex via the Contact page of this website.  Also, contact Alex if you plan to attend an event and wish to be apprised of any last-minute changes.

September 2019

festival
From 10 am til 6 pm on Sunday, September 22, 2019, Alex will be talking about the Al and Mick Forte crime fiction series, within blocks of the setting for that series’ tales of Brooklyn, at Booth 631 at the BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL. For details about “one of America’s premier book festivals and the largest free literary event in New York City,” go to https://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/

 

August 2019

MinJinLee
Alex meets renowned author, Min Jin Lee, at the Writer’s Digest 2019 Annual Conference, where she was a keynote speaker.  Among her numerous awards, Lee’s epic novel Pachinko was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award.

 

June 2019

JacquelineWoodson
Alex was at the BookExpo conference in New York City on May 29, 2019, where he met the acclaimed author, Jacqueline Woodson, whose numerous awards include the 2014 National Book Award Winner for Young People’s Literature for her memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming. In the photo, Alex is holding her novel, Another Brooklyn, which was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award for fiction.

 

May 2019

highly-recommended
Make note of the book that’s shelved between books by Margaret Atwood and James Baldwin on the “Highly Recommended” shelf at the Queens Public Library..

 

 

 

 

 

the-newspaper-clipping

This appeared in the Alumni Class Notes section of Brooklyn Law Notes of Spring 2019, published by Brooklyn Law School, Alex’s alma mater.

March 2019
Alex will have a table, and maybe more, at the BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL on Sunday, September 22, 2019. 10 am-6 pm

Occupational Hazard was assigned as part of the reading curriculum in Ralph E. Moore, Jr.’s GED-prep class of the Healthy Start Program of Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute of Baltimore, MD.

GED-class
Ralph’s students proudly showing off their copies of Occupational Hazard.

 

 

 

 

 

Moore-JJ

Ralph Moore himself, a life-long community activist, is on the far left and is also pictured with another friend, Hon. William M. Jackson of  the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, who is on the far right.

February 2019

Check out Alex’s answers to a number of questions posed by Goodreads.com by going to:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/18384131.Alex_S_Avitabile/questions

Mama-gathering
Here’s Alex discussing Occupational Hazard with friends at –where else?—Mama Maria’s.

 

 

 

January 2019
One of the Best Indie Publishing Strategies for 2019

A strategy suggested by Alex was selected as one of the “Best Indie Publishing Strategies for 2019” by the International Book Publishers Association. Alex proposed the following:

To more carefully edit and proofread, as boring and tedious as such efforts are: read your finished writing out loud. Forces you to read every single word and avoid the unconscious skimming and glossing over what is all too familiar. This makes it easier to spot typos and grammatical errors and further assists to edit your writing, as you get a reader’s feel for the flow of your writing. Think about how negative you feel when you encounter typos or obvious grammatical errors in a published work. Remember how terrible you feel to find the same in your writing.

See: https://www.ibpa-online.org/news/news.asp?id=433125

November 2018
Brooklyn Law School presentation

Alex recently presented a signed copy of Occupational Hazard to Dean Maryellen Fullerton at a Brooklyn Law School  alumni event!

BLS-presentastion

Occupational Hazard featured on Tympest Books!

An excerpt from Occupational Hazard, has been posted on the Tympest Books website. It’s one of Alex’s favorites:

Read the excerpt here

Alex Avitabile invited to guest post

Alex was invited to write a Guest Post for Lauren’s Bookshelp blog site. To read the full post, visit the following link:

Read the post here

October 2018
Publication Launch

Alex launched the publication of Occupational Hazard with a reading at the New York City office of Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., where he served as vice president and deputy general counsel at the time of his retirement at the end of 2015.

The reading was attended by some 50 former Enterprise colleagues and others, and a rousing discussion of the book ensued and was enjoyed by all.

Below is a picture of Alex at the reading.

Alex S. Avitabile book reading

Read Alex’s “Author Story” on the 1106 Design website via this link:
https://1106design.com/2018/09/author-story-alex-s-avitabile/

Book Signing
On Saturday, October 20, 2018, Alex appeared at the Queens Public Library’s Indie Authors Day
event to sign (and sell) copies of Occupational Hazard.

QueensPublic

Be on the look out here for notices of future readings and other Occupational Hazard events.