The day has arrived: Stephen Ferry’s Violentology is officially out and available for purchase. This also means Ferry will kick off the corresponding book tour this week with a number of speaking engagements around New York City and the Northeast, so be sure to attend one of the events and pick up a copy of the book.

Things get started tonight at New York University, where Stephen will join Max Schoening and Sibylla Brodzinsky, editors of the oral history compilation Throwing Stones at the Moon, for a discussion of the Colombian conflict and its displacement of nearly 4 million civilians from their homes. Hosted by the Institute for Public Knowledge, the event begins at 6:30 pm and is free and open to the public.

Next up is a night of readings and discussion at McNally Jackson bookstore in Nolita with Ferry, Schoening, Brodzinsky, and former Representative in Colombia of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Christian Salazar, on Wednesday, September 19 at 7 pm. The event was put together by Voice of Witness, a nonprofit book series focused on bringing contemporary social injustice to light, and promises to be an insightful and informative look at this often misunderstood conflict.

Ferry will then head to Brown University in Providence, RI to take part in “Depictions of Conflict: Documenting Violence in Colombia,” a conversation and book signing event that is part of the “New Security Challenges in The Americas” series put on by the Watson Institute for International Studies. Conversation begins at 3 pm on Monday, September 24.

Last up for September is a panel at Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies in Cambridge, MA on Wednesday the 26th. Featuring Violentology and Throwing Stones at the Moon, the discussion will focus on the Colombian conflict’s impacts on the civilian population. Panel is free and open to the public and includes a reception following the event.

We hope to see you all there!

The New York Photo Awards 2012 competition recently announced its list of finalists, and we’re happy to report that the talented Rania Matar was selected in the Photobook category for A Girl and Her Room. Seventeen jurors affiliated with the likes of The New Yorker, Magnum Photos, Mother Jones, FotoVisura, and other notables in the photography and art world chose Rania as one of five finalists in the Photobook category, identifying her as an artist helping to define the future of photography. The competition began in 2008 as part of the The New York Photo Festival and has attracted submissions from over 20,000 talented photographers and artists from around the world since then.

Winners will be announced on September 28 at The powerHouse Arena as part of an opening exhibition featuring the work of all finalists, providing yet another incentive to head over to the DUMBO Arts Festival taking place from September 28 – 30. Additionally Rania’s work, along with that of the other finalists, will be featured in the 2013 issue of powerHouse Magazine: The Future of Contemporary Photography. Congratulations and good luck to Rania, and we hope to see everyone at the opening exhibition!