Next Chapter: Inprint Welcomes a New Director and New Line-up of Authors

Giuseppe Taurino may be the new guy at Inprint, one of Texas’ most prestigious literary organizations, but he’s hardly a novice when it comes to Houston or the contemporary writing world. Taurino took over the Inprint directorship after a tenure at Writers in the Schools and was associate director of the creative writing program at University of Houston.

As I sat down to discuss the recently announced 2026-2027 Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series with Taurino and deputy director Krupa Parikh, he voiced his gratitude to both the staff and Inprint’s place on the national literary stage.

Taurino came onto the role overlapping retiring director Rich Levy for several months, and so they both had input into the season.

“I absolutely knew, just by virtue of going to the readings and getting a sense of the terrific writers here in Houston, and the support that the organization provides across various tracks of the community,” he says of Inprint’s stature. “But the point was really emphasized when Rich and I were in New York, meeting with publicists across the various publishing houses. The greetings we received were personal, absolutely, but I think it was also sort of a testament to the relationships and the reputation that Inprint has built. These folks were very excited to have the opportunity to potentially present some of their writers at the reading series.”

That 26-27 lineup makes for a diverse mix of bestsellers, major award winners, and intriguing new, or at least new to Houston, voices. Many of these books won’t be published until next year so the Inprint crew haven’t had a chance to read them all, but already immersing themselves in galley previews and from the synopsis coming from publishing houses, Taurino believes there are some common themes and questions many authors are exploring.

“I think the books all in some form move through one or more notions of identity, memory, family, race, technology, climate, and the future,” adding that even some of those set in the past are “speaking to the world we’re living in now, and how people try to find their place within it.”

Looking through the season, it also becomes apparent that many of these authors have created worlds and stories so enticing the major streamers want to adapt them for the screen.

The season opens Aug. 24 with fresh fare, two writers new to the Inprint lineup. Andrea Bajani, whose novel The Anniversary recently won Italy’s most prestigious literary award, the Strega Prize, won’t need to travel far for the reading, as he’s the international writer-in-residence at Rice University. Taurino is also particularly happy to welcome the second author for the evening, Claire Vaye Watkins, as he’s used some of her short stories when teaching at UH. Watkins reads from her new novel Yellow Pine. Though Bajani and Watkins’s works have very different settings, both novels deal with the universality of family relationships.

Sept. 14, multiple award winning author, Claudia Rankine, will bring Triage to Houston, a work that defies genres, mixing narrative, memoir, essays, and even images throughout.

The fiction packed fall also brings a trio of Pulitzer Prize winners, including Ayad Akhtar on Oct. 5 with The Radiance, what the Inprint crew describe as a kind of literary whodunit. Since Houston theater lovers will likely know Akhtar for his many acclaimed plays like Disgraced, it seems appropriate that he’ll read at the Alley Theatre. Just a week later on Oct. 12, Herman Diaz, brings his new novel Ply, a family drama and scientific thriller. For the last reading of the year, on Nov. 12, Inprint favorite and literary superstar, Colson Whitehead, reads the much awaited, Cool Machine, the final volume in his bestselling Harlem Trilogy, which Apple TV just announced they’ll adapt into a series.

Inprint’s new year begins on Jan. 25, with an Exit Party, the new dystopian novel from Emily St. John Mandel, author of the bestselling and HBO adapted Station Eleven. It wouldn’t be an Inprint season without at least one evening of poetry, and two celebrated voices Adrian Matejka, the editor-in-chief of Poetry Magazine and multiple award winner Victoria Chang arrive on Feb. 8.

The books to screen hits keep coming, as Lily King, bestselling author of Writers & Lovers, which will soon be a BBC series, rings in spring on March 15, with her newest novel, Heart the Lover.

The season ends with another literary superstar, Booker Prize winner Marlon James on April 12. He’ll read from a work not out until 2027, The Disappearers. Set in Jamaica in the 80s and 90s, the work explores queer life, survival, and resilience.

Of course, beyond the reading series, Inprint continues to offer writing workshops to the whole community, presents the Cool Brains readings series for kids, the Spanish reading series, Escritores en la casa, and supports up and coming writers and the literary arts throughout Houston.

“Everything we do revolves around inspiring readers and writers at every single stage,” describes Taurino, adding that he hopes the reading series acts as an entrance into all that Inprint does. “So we’re really interested in figuring out ways for folks to come into the front door, join the conversation, and feel a part of the community.”

—TARRA GAINES