Victor LaValle and Gary Shteyngart

Victor LaValle is author of three books of fiction—Slapboxing with Jesus, The Ecstatic and Big Machine. "If Hieronymus Bosch and Lenny Bruce got knocked up by a woman with a large and compassionate heart, they might have brought forth Big Machine," wrote Amy Bloom. "But it is Victor LaValle's peculiar, poetic, rough and funny voice that brings it to us, alive and kicking and irresistible." Gary Shteyngart's three novels are The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story—'a terrifying and heartbreaking yet exhilarating and hilarious vision of where our post-literate, post-solvent civilization is headed," wrote Kiran Desai. Date & Time: Mon, Mar 7, 2011, 8:00pm Location: Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street Directions Venue: Kaufmann