Introducing Fortunately
Writers gather to collaborate at New York’s latest reading series.
Photographer NICHOLAS MAUCIERI
Fortunately, a new reading series founded by writers Tania Veltchev, Charlotte Fleming, Juliette Jeffers, and KT Dorfman, brought together roughly 50 guests in a candlelit downtown brownstone on February 19th for an evening of poetry, fiction, and literary humor. The series creates a small but lively salon-style gathering than many of the city’s literary events.
Audience members squeezed into chairs, perched on windowsills, and stood shoulder-to-shoulder around the living room to hear readings that examined various dimensions of love: earnest, communal, lustful, and occasionally awkward. The February program featured a diverse lineup of writers. Eskor David Johnson, a writer from Trinidad, read from a new novel he’s working on, following his 2023 novel Pay As You Go. Poet Kyle Carrero Lopez shared work from his debut collection, Party Line, which features poems that move through nightlife and queer culture. Matthew Rohrer read from across his work, including poems from his latest collection, Army of Giants, while Matt Starr entertained the crowd with irreverent poems from his book Mouthful. The evening closed with New Yorker writer and humorist Patricia Marx, who read from her novel Him Her Him Again the End of Him.
The room was relaxed but focused, roaring with laughter during the comic poems and paying quiet attention during the more reflective passages. The evening spilled across the apartment after the readings, as guests continued to gather around a decadent tablescape in the dining room, picking up drinks from a bartender in the wood-paneled library. Conversations continued in hallways, side rooms, and on the stairs as people lingered late into the night.
“[Fortunately] began with drinks at Funny Bar, and then we all started [discussing] in a group chat. We wanted a reading series that felt multigenerational and maybe a little bit like a secret or an old school salon,” said Juliette about the inception of the program.
Fortunately hosts gatherings monthly, alternating between social drinks hour and curated readings. Their next drinks event will take place in March, followed by another reading in April.
