Tag Archives: author video

Queens is taking up the slack where Brooklyn and Manhattan have let up – at least as far as literature goes. By providing coffee houses where writers can still plug in and type for hours without being kicked to the curb, Queens may be transforming itself to a literary mecca. Here’s a new author to watch, not surprisingly, his new book DOGFIGHT takes place in Jackson Heights, Queens, the neighborhood where the author grew up. Move over Brooklyn and Jonathan Lethem, here comes Matt Burgess:

‘Dogfight’ Author Matt Burgess Gives a Queens Walking Tour
(by the Wall Street Journal Staff)

“Wall Street Journal reporter Lee Hawkins recently took one of his “WalkAbout NY” tours with Matt Burgess, a young novelist whose debut, “Dogfight,” is set in Jackson Heights, Queens, the neighborhood where the author grew up. The novel, which follows two rival brothers involved in low-level drug dealing, is drawing positive reviews and making an argument for Queens, long overshadowed by Brooklyn, to have a stronger toehold on the literary map. Burgess now lives in Minneapolis, but he returned to tour his old neighborhood with the Journal. Watch the video, here.”