Columbia Selects at the KGB Bar! We are delighted to announce the return of Columbia Selects—our storied alumni reading series—to the KGB Bar for the 2024-25 season!
Join us Thursday, April 3, at 7 PM, for another stellar lineup:
Ananda Naima González '19 is a writer, educator, multidisciplinary artist, and performer residing in Harlem, NY. She carries a BA and an MFA from Columbia University, in poetry and fiction respectively, and has taught at both Columbia and Gotham Writers Workshop. Her words have appeared in BOMB, McSweeney’s, Catapult, Apogee, The Southern Review, Bellingham Review, Lampblack, Waxing & Waning, and Twin Bird Review. She has been a finalist for awards granted by Gulf Coast Journal, LitMag, Indiana Review, and SmokeLong Quarterly, among others. Her mission is to honor the inherently sacred ritual of living. Ananda is also a professionally trained dancer and an accomplished choreographer and filmmaker.
Rachel A.G. Gilman '20 is the hostess of Wine and Pine: A Desirous Reading Series held monthly at Ten Degrees Bar in New York’s East Village. While earning her MFA from Columbia University, she served as Editor-in-Chief of Columbia Journal, Issue 58. She also holds an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford. Rachel is currently a student in The Writers’ Institute at CUNY’s Graduate Center where she is writing a rom-com about a recovering alcoholic chef and a divorced nurse who find love by way of a New York singles support group. Also in the works is her experimental memoir-in-essays about the correlation between trauma and control in dating. She promises both are funny.
Emily Weitzman '20 is a writer, educator, performer, and multidisciplinary artist from New York. She is a lecturer in the Undergraduate Writing Program at Columbia University, where she received her MFA in nonfiction. Her work has been published in Indiana Review, Longreads, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, HuffPost, and HAD, among other places. She has been a finalist for the Sewanee Review Contest, the Disquiet Literary Prize, and the Iowa Review Nonfiction Award, and has received fellowships and residencies from the Vermont Studio Center, the Adirondack Center for Writing, Tin House, the Watson Fellowship, and more. Emily wrote and performed a solo show, Furniture Boys, which critics called “weirdly poignant…bizarre absurdist comedy,” "loopily, luminously charming," and “imaginative, thoughtful, playful, hilarious and relentlessly, infectiously joyous.” The show premiered off-Broadway at SoHo Playhouse in 2024 and was selected for festivals in Orlando and Canada. Emily also dances and choreographs, performs comedy and clown, and collects tiny chairs. (emilyweitzman.com)
What is Columbia Selects? Columbia Selects is an alumni reading series hosted by the Columbia MFA Writing Program. In recent years, many of our featured writers have achieved critical and commercial success. This is your chance to glimpse who you'll be reading in 2026!
Columbia Selects is curated by Bryan VanDyke '00 and Emily Austin '10.
Come for the talent. Stay for the camaraderie and cocktails.
For more info send an email to [email protected]
