Two of America’s most exciting young fiction writers—Blake Butler and Michael Kimball—will read at Antenna Gallery on Thursday, June 9, at 7 p.m., courtesy of Room 220. Both authors work at the forefront of contemporary literary art, and if you have any interest in such things this is an event not to be missed.

Blake Butler is the author of three books, including Scorch Atlas, which 3:AM Magazine named Novel of the Year. He will read from his new novel, There is No Year, recently released by Harper Perennial. The New York Times review of the novel called it “a thing of such strange beauty that digging for answers of your own will yield the rewards that only well-made art can provide.” Butler is the editor of HTML Giant and a workhorse of independent publishing, churning out countless stories and editing anthologies and literary magazines, including Lamination Colony and No Colony. He blogs at www.gillesdeleuzecommittedsuicideandsowilldrphil.com.

Sam Lipsyte has called Michael Kimball “a hero of contemporary fiction” and Gary Lutz has said he’s “one of our most supremely gifted and virtuosic renderers of the human predicament.” He is the author of three novels, including Dear Everybody, which the Believer called “a curatorial masterpiece.” His work has been translated into over a dozen languages. Kimball will read from his new novel, Us, recently released by Tyrant Books. You can read an interview with Kimball and an excerpt from Us on Room 220.