One way to get to know a city is by walking its streets. Another is by reading the books of its residents. With Brooklyn Public Library, you can do both!
Take us with you as you stroll from neighborhood to neighborhood. We’ll tell you about the literary sites along the way: fictional places where novels have been set, real apartments where the authors once lived, and the libraries they visited. You can start anywhere and do as many or as few stops as you like. Walking, this tour will take two or more hours to complete.
Download the Otocast app on your smart phone to take our tour with you! If you're in Brooklyn, ours will be the first tour that comes up. If not, just search for "BPL" and you'll find it. The app will tell you how to get to each location, and you can listen to the tour or read a text version as you walk.
Don't have a smart phone? You can explore the tour on your web browser.
Writers on this tour include:
- Marianne Moore
- Richard Wright
- Patti Smith
- Naima Coster
- Tanwi Nandini Islam
- Biggie Smalls
- Jason Reynolds
- Tiffany D. Jackson
- Paule Marshall
- Bridgett Davis
- Kaitlyn Greenidge
- Alfred Kazin
- Pauli Murray
- Howard Zinn
- Jacqueline Woodson
- Jenny Zhang
- Jessica Love
- Ezra Jack Keats
- Walt Whitman
- Betty Smith
- Chaim Potok
- Michael Chabon
- Ibi Zoboi
- Amy Shearn
- Colm Tóbín
- Mary H.K. Choi
- N.K. Jemisin
- Edwidge Dandicat
- Jay-Z
- Arthur Miller
- W.E.B. DuBois
- Margaret Wise Brown
- Maurice Sendak
- Yelena Akhtiorskaya
You can check out all the books mention on this tour from the library! Find a complete list of books below on the tour below or on this dedicated book list.
Special note: Twenty of the stops in this guide (the yellow pins) appear on our book list celebrating BPL’s 125th anniversary. To see the entire list, please visit: www.bklynlibrary.org/125/booklist
Download the Otocast app!
Take the tour with you! You can listen to the tour or read a text version as you walk.
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