East Coast Book Tour to Promote World Literature Today Centennial Anthology

The week of March 23–27, Daniel Simon will do a series of East Coast events to promote A Compass on the Navigable Sea: 100 Years of World Literature (Restless Books, 2026), his edited anthology commemorating the WLT centennial:

Monday, March 23, 7pm
In conversation with Daniel Quirós
Book & Puppet Co. | 161 Northampton Street, Easton, PA 18042
Followed by a book signing
Organizer: Andy Laties

Tuesday, March 24, 7pm
Reading with Peter Constantine, Joseph Legaspi, and Pádraig Ó Tuama
(tickets here)
McNally Jackson Seaport | 4 Fulton Street, New York, NY 10038
Followed by a book signing
Organizer: Swati Sudarsan

Wednesday, March 25, 6:30pm
Reading with Carlos Labbé and Andy Tepper
The World’s Borough Bookshop | 34-06 73rd Street, Jackson Heights, NY 11372
Followed by a book signing
Organizer: Adrian Cepeda

Thursday, March 26, 6pm
Reading with Anna Badkhen, Sarah Leonard, and Carine Medllus
(register here)
Kelly Writers House | University of Pennsylvania
3805 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Followed by a book signing
Organizer: Jessica Lowenthal

On March 27, Simon will teach a clinic on magazine publishing for the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at Penn and give a talk to Ilya Kaminsky’s students at Princeton University.

A Compass on the Navigable Sea features more than 130 essays, book reviews, interviews, poems, stories, and letters that have appeared in the magazine since its founding in 1927. “What a vibrant, refreshing anthology this is, full of surprising, distinctive writing from every continent, which has been true for every issue of World Literature Today for decades,” writes Princeton University professor Idra Novey. “Editor Daniel Simon is a tremendous guide to the republic of letters. His enduring curiosity for the art of translation and for new literature from other languages is evident in the dynamic range of styles and approaches included here. From the Mozambican novelist Mia Couto to the Mayan poet Briceida Cuevas Cob, the dynamic range of prose and poetry is indeed a compass to a better direction for our species and for the planet that we share.” Kirkus Reviews has called the book “literature as news that stays news, because timeless couldn’t be more timely.”

An award-winning anthologist, poet, editor, translator, and essayist, Simon has published three verse collections, most recently Under a Gathering Sky (2024), and edited three anthologies. His poems have been translated into six languages and nominated for multiple awards. In addition to his roles as assistant director and editor in chief of WLT, he also serves as an affiliate faculty member in English, International Studies, and Judaic Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

For accommodations, interview requests, or other questions, contact the individual event organizers, email Lydia McOscar at Restless Books, or call 405-325-0317.