So it looks like free concerts aren’t the only events taking place in our local parks this summer, Bryant Park is hosting an impressive series of book readings and author discussions on Wednesday’s at lunchtime from May until August. You can take a look at the full schedule of Wednesday author appearances after the jump or check out even more “Word for Word” events over here.

Word for Word Author 2010
Schedule of Author Appearances

Best-selling authors, celebrity writers, and expert-panelists share anecdotes, answer questions from the audience, and sign copies of their latest books.

Details:
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Darryl Strawberry, Straw: Finding My Way

Baseball All-Star and World Series champ Darryl Strawberry, talks about his home run memoir, autographs books, and meets fans of all ages.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project

Sing: “Forget your troubles, Come on get happy” with Gretchen Rubin, as she shares tips from her yearlong experiment, The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Wednesday, June 2, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Cool Planet
Green Acres, Green Gardens

A panel of author experts TBD with Maureen Hackett, Director of Horticulture, Bryant Park Corporation

Wednesday, June 9, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Samantha Bee, I Know I Am, but What Are You?

The most Senior Correspondent of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee talks about her memoir—a thoroughly hilarious, unabashedly frank collection of personal essays.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Kelly Cutrone, If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You

Fashion publicist and reality T.V. star Kelly Cutrone (The City & Kell on Earth), discusses her “real girls” (and boys) guide to making it in today’s world.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Colson Whitehead, Sag Harbor
In conversation with Samantha Hunt, The Invention of Everything Else

Kick back to 1985 and feel the breeze, with Colson Whitehead (The Colossus of New York) and his PEN/Faulkner nominated “autographical fourth novel” full of 80’s pop-culture and stories aplenty.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Underwater New York with special guest Deb Olin Unferth and others TBD

Beneath the waters surrounding New York City is a landscape of objects so mysterious and evocative they just beg for stories to be told. Underwater New York is an online anthology of stories, art and music inspired by a growing list of underwater objects found in New York City waters. Come hear some of the city’s most inventive minds conjure songs and tales about these sunken off-beat treasures with contributors to the website.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad
Jane Mendelsohn, American Music

Stories unfold through music and times gone by, in the latest works by best-selling authors, Jennifer Egan (The Keep) and Jane Mendelsohn (I Was Amelia Earhart).

Wednesday, July 14, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Sebastian Junger, War

From best-selling author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm), a brilliant and empathetic 15-month account of an American platoon stationed in one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous outposts.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
FUNny Writers
Hosted by: Tom Shillue, Comedian Extraordinaire & Wed-Based Live Stand-Up Comix
With Authors: Sloane Crosley, How Did You Get This Number
Larry Doyle, Go Mutants!
Josh Kilmer-Purcell, The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir
Simon Rich, Elliot Allagash

Alien monsters, 60 goats, arrogant heirs, and bear bells are but a few topics of choice, in the latest books from these relentlessly “fun and funny” writers.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Gary Shteyngart, Super Sad True Love Story
In conversation with Random House Editor-at-Large David Ebershoff, The 19th Wife

New York favorite author Gary Shteyngart (Absurdistan), with a funny, rich, knock-out novel, where falling in love just may redeem a planet falling apart.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Fictiononomy – A Fictional look at the Economy
With authors: Jonathan Dee, The Privileges
Martha McPhee, Dear Money
Arthur Nersesian, Mesopotamia
Emily Gray Tedrowe, Commuters

Mega-wealth, greed, flat broke journalists longing for work, money, money and more money – writers reflect on the current state of our economy, fiction style.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Terry Teachout, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong
With a musical performance by: Jon-Erik Kellso, Jazz Trumpeter Extraordinaire

Sit back and make yourself at home with the music of Louis Armstrong, and Terry Teachout’s (drama critic for the Wall Street Journal) portrait of the man behind the music.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Mona Simpson, My Hollywood

From the much loved author of Anywhere by Here and The Lost Father, Mona Simpson’s story of two women, behind the glitter of Hollywood.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Rick Moody, The Four Fingers of Death
with Wesley Stace (John Wesley Harding), Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer

Author and musician Rick Moody brings his love of the old-fashioned b-movie alive, with the novelization of the 1963 horror flick, The Crawling Hand – and a double-feature musical performance with host Wesley Stace.