Tayyba Kanwal with Shubha Sunder: Talking with Boys

• This event will take place at street level.
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• ASL interpretation may be provided (based on the availability of interpreters) but must be requested at least 2 weeks in advance of the event.
• Please email us at [email protected] as soon as possible if you require ASL interpretation, guaranteed seating, or other accommodations. Seats are limited.We will do our best to serve your needs!

In a collection of linked tales filled with irony, humor, and magic, Talking with Boys introduces an unforgettable cast of characters in the Pakistani diaspora in Houston navigating crises of their own making and beyond their control.
Via generations and geographies, the stories expand from Houston into tales from the characters’ pasts in Dubai and Lahore. A community of Pakistani immigrants distract ICE with unlikely bait. A housekeeper in a Dubai mansion plots to liberate her fellow indentured workers. In Lahore, an empty nester finds herself bound by more than a jinxed bracelet. Throughout, Tayyba Kanwal’s remarkable characters navigate economic upheavals, political turmoil, and personal betrayals to pursue love, plot for survival, and play subtle power games to triumph against patriarchal forces of all genders.

Tayyba Kanwal is a Pakistani-American writer, and editor and author of the short story collection, Talking with Boys (Black Lawrence Press, 2026) She serves as Senior Editor at Conjunctions., and as programming director at the literary arts nonprofit, Inprint, in Houston. Her work appears in journals such as Witness Magazine, Meridian and Gulf Coast Journal, and has won awards including the Black Lawrence Press Immigrant Writing Prize and the Inprint Donald Barthelme Prize in Fiction. She holds an MFA from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program and an MS in Mathematics from the University of Oregon.

Shubha Sunder is a 2025 Whiting Award winner and the author of the novel Optional Practical Training, an immigrant story told in conversations, which has been longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize 2025 and named a finalist for the New American Voices Award.

Brookline Booksmith, thriving in the heart of Coolidge Corner in Brookline, Massachusetts, since 1961, is one of New England’s premier independent bookstores. We offer a vast selection of books, ranging from current bestsellers to the most eclectic titles. We are also known for our beautiful and inspired gifts. Customers buy and sell gently used books in our treasured Used Book Cellar and enjoy our bountiful bargain book selection. We host award-winning events series (including our groundbreaking Transnational Literature Series), offering more than 300 author talks, community conversations, and book clubs annually. Find more at brooklinebooksmith.com!

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