• Thursday, Jan. 14, 7 p.m. — Inspired Word's monthly series, hosted by Michael Phillip Geffner, presents NYC writers at the Parkside Lounge, 317 E. Houston St. at Attorney Street.
• Friday, Jan. 22, 7 p.m. — Bluestockings, 172 Allen St. near Stanton Street
• Wednesday, Feb. 10, 6 p.m. — The Salmagundi Art Club of New York, 47 Fifth Ave. Hosted by the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation
• Thursday, Feb. 18, 7 p.m. — KGB Bar, 85 E. Fourth St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery, part of the "Drunken Careening Writers" series hosted by Kathleen Warnock.
Here's a quick synopsis of "The Chintz Age" via its press materials:
In seven stories and a novella, Ed Hamilton takes on this clash of cultures between the old and the new, as his characters are forced to confront their own obsolescence in the face of a rapidly surging capitalist juggernaut. Ranging over the whole panorama of New York neighborhoods — from the East Village to Hell’s Kitchen, and from the Bowery to Washington Heights — Hamilton weaves a web of urban mythology. Punks, hippies, beatniks, squatters, junkies, derelicts, and anarchists ... searching for meaning and a place to make their stand.