Center For Fiction Announces Opening Day For New Fort Greene Spot

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — The Center for Fiction will officially move from its longstanding midtown Manhattan spot to Brooklyn with a grand opening party on Feb. 19, the nonprofit announced.

The literary organization, which first announced last year that it would be relocating to the borough, has been closed to the public as it set up the new three-story building on Lafayette Avenue. But after its grand opening celebration, patrons will finally get to see inside the center's new expanded location.

"Surrounded by BAM, the Mark Morris Dance Group and sixty other cultural destinations that draw over 4 million people to the neighborhood, The Center’s 18,000 square foot space designed by Julie Nelson at BKSK Architects, will place books and the celebration of story in all its forms at the very heart of this vibrant cultural area," the center said on its website.

The new 15 Lafayette Avenue space includes a new bookstore, cafe and bar area, a 140-seat auditorium and room for the Center's library and special collections, the organization said. Its opening will be followed by a new website designed by the Brooklyn Digital Foundry.

It is the first time the center will not be in Manhattan since it opened in 1820, originally as a Mercantile Library.

The grand opening will be held from 7 to 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 19 and will include live music, an open bar, food and prizes sponsored by Brooklyn vendors, the organization said. Prizes include items from Ample Hills, Brooklyn Brewery, Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, and Die Stamm Kneipe.

Tickets for the opening party are $35 and can be purchased HERE.

The proceeds from the celebration will support The Center’s KidsRead /KidsWrite program, which brings public school children to the center for various programs. The program will expand its reach to schools throughout Brooklyn with the move.

After the opening, the Center will host its first program in the new space, an event with Amit Chaudhauri and The New Yorker’s James Wood. Programs will also include writing workshops led by Idra Novey, Jonathan Santlofer, Paul La Farge and Weike Wang, among many others, and numerous reading groups.

Photo provided by BKSK Architects.