Karen Russell wowed readers as a 25-year-old Columbia MFA graduate with her 2006 debut story collection St. Lucys Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, whose titular story concerns a school that assimilates werewolf girls into the human world. Now, Russell, a Florida native, takes us deep into the enchanted Florida Everglades with her first novel Swamplandia!, which tells the story of a familys fight to save their once-booming gator-wrestling theme park being threatened by an ominous, modern new competitor, The World of Darkness. Tonight, Russell (named one of The New Yorkers Best 20 Writers Under 40) reads from her book and takes all your questions on swamp lore. ANGELA ASHMAN
Sat., Feb. 19, 7 p.m., 2011
