Literature Evening featuring Ankur Thakkar

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | Please join us for a Literature Evening this Wednesday, September 23, at 7:00 pm in Tishman as we welcome Ankur Thakkar, author of the recent novel Blow Yourself Up (TriQuarterly, 2026), which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. The reading will be followed by a Q&A and book signing.

“Ankur Thakkar is remarkably attuned to the perils and seductions of today’s rapidly changing world. His propulsive, capacious debut, Blow Yourself Up, alarms and delights.” —R. O. Kwon, author of Exhibit

About Blow Yourself Up
A story of first love across cities spanning the decade that transformed the internet.
In the halls of an elite East Coast high school, Arjun and Payal fall in love as the world begins to tilt toward the digital. Over the next eight years, their trajectories diverge as sharply as the fractured internet itself. Payal ascends to the dizzying, dopamine-fueled heights of New York’s influencer economy, finding fame on Boost, a looping video app that is as rewarding as it is demanding. Meanwhile, in a cavernous office in Chicago, Arjun, a musician whose dreams have quieted, now cleans up the same platform’s debris, moderating the internet’s darkest videos. When a brutal act of political violence against a beloved musician goes viral, this rip in reality forces the pair to confront the motivations of the platforms they inhabit. A sharp exploration of creative ambition and the multifarious nature of identity, this is a story of love in the time of infinite scroll and a look at what we sacrifice to be seen.

About the Author
Ankur Thakkar is the author of Blow Yourself Up, which was longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. His stories have appeared in Guernica, [PANK], and TriQuarterly. He was a 2025 Sewanee Writers’ Conference Scholar and his artwork has been exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo and La Friche la Belle de Mai.