Authors on the Map Brown Bag Brunch
Tuesday, September 19 - 10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Washington / Clark Ballroom
(Tickets required)
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Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson / Eagle Drums / Roaring Brook Press
Based on the origin story of the Iñupiaq Messenger Feast, Eagle Drums (Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan) is the beautiful debut middle grade novel from Alaskan author and illustrator Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson. As his family prepares for winter, a young, skilled hunter must travel up a mountain to collect obsidian for knapping—the same mountain where his two older brothers died. When he reaches the mountaintop, he is immediately confronted by a terrifying eagle god named Savik, who gives the boy a choice: follow me or die like your brothers. What comes next is a harrowing journey to the home of the eagle gods and unexpected lessons on the natural world, the past that shapes us, and the community that binds us. |
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Susan Lieu / The Manicurist's Daughter: A Memoir / Celadon Books
Seattle writer, playwright and performer Susan Lieu tells an emotionally raw story in her debut memoir, The Manicurist’s Daughter (Celadon Books/Macmillan). Lieu recounts her Vietnamese refugee family’s journey from poverty to success, thanks, in large part, to her beautiful and charismatic mother’s savvy founding and running of two nail salons. But when Susan was just eleven, her mother, matriarch and center-star of the family, died as a result of negligence during a routine plastic surgery, leaving Susan with a raft of questions she would spend several decades attempting to answer. The Manicurist’s Daughter touches on issues of grief, trauma and body-image, but is also a story of fierce determination and of finding one’s place in the world. The Manicurist’s Daughter will be published in March 2024. |
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Lisa Brideau / Adrift: A Novel / Sourcebooks Landmark
In a world teetering on the brink of climate catastrophe, a woman wakes up alone on a sailboat somewhere in the remote Pacific Northwest. She has no memory of who she is or of how she got there. But she does find a short note, which ends with the warning: Don’t look back. Should she heed the advice and move forward into a new life, or try to reclaim the person she once was? Lisa Brideau’s novel Adrift (Sourcebooks Landmark/Sourcebooks) is at once a taut thriller, a character-driven odyssey, and an unsettling picture of what our future could be. A former aerospace engineer, Brideau now works as a sustainability specialist on issues of climate change policy and equity. She lives in Vancouver, B.C. |
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Lydia Kiesling / Mobility: A Novel / Crooked Media Reads
In Mobility (Crooked Media Reads/IPS), Bunny Glenn goes from lonely American teenager stuck in Azerbaijan with her Foreign Service family to a middle-aged woman occupying oil industry corporate office suites in Houston. Novelist Lydia Kiesling manages to make her tale of class, power, politics and greed both laugh-out-loud funny and incisively thought-provoking, all told through the eyes of one ambitious if conflicted woman. Bunny’s long arc upward is propelled both by her desire to get somewhere and her complacent yearning for a comfortable life. Greed might be bad, but getting paid, and paid well, certainly feels good. Lydia Kiesling, who lives in Portland, is the author of The Golden State, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker online, and other outlets. |
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Deke Moulton / Don't Want to Be Your Monster / Tundra Books
Adam (age 10) and Victor (age 14), argue about all the regular things that come between brothers. Who gets the remote. What movie to watch. Whether it’s morally acceptable to drink the blood of humans. In Deke Moulton’s delightfully different vampire story for middle-grade readers, Don’t Want to Be Your Monster (Tundra Books/PRH), these two brothers will have to set aside their differences and learn to work together when it becomes clear that a vampire hunter is in town, and on the trail of their very own family. Deke Moulton is a writer currently living in the Pacific Northwest. A former US Army drill sergeant, Moulton trained as an Arabic linguist during their time in service. Don't Want to Be Your Monster is their debut book. |
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Cassandra Newbould / Things I'll Never Say / Peachtree Teen
In Seattle writer Cassandra Newbould’s debut novel for young adults, Things I’ll Never Say (Peachtree Teen/Peachtree), Casey Jones Caruso is struggling with a lot of complicated feelings. First, there’s her two best friends, and the crush she has on both of them, and at the same time. If only her she could ask her twin brother, Sammy, for some advice; but he’s dead, victim of a drug overdose. And that makes Casey really angry. Things I’ll Never Say is a powerful coming-of-age story, raw, beautiful and poignant. Cassandra Newbould is also the editor of Every Body Shines, an intersectional feminist YA anthology celebrating body diversity and fat acceptance through compelling short stories, as well as the host and creator of the podcast Fat Like Me. |
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Mary Rechner / Marrying Friends / Propeller Books
Portland author and educator Mary Rechner makes her debut as a novelist with Marrying Friends (Propeller Books), a frank and often wry look at the bewildering bonds between women, men, siblings, parents and children. When her troubled husband dies unexpectedly, mercurial Therese gets tangled in competing desires and demands--her own and those of her friends and family on Long Island. Ambitious in scope yet carefully observed, Marrying Friends deftly illuminates multiple characters as grief forces them to reimagine their lives and relationships. Mary Rechner has published fiction, criticism and essays in numerous publications, from the Kenyon Review to the Oregonian. She is the author of the short story collection Nine Simple Patterns for Complicated Women, and the novella The Opposite of Wow. |
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Simone Gorrindo / The Wives / Scout Press
Simone Gorrindo debuts with The Wives: A Memoir (Gallery/Simon & Schuster), a powerful, intimate memoir about the bonds of marriage and friendship. When her new husband joins an elite Army unit, Gorrindo is uprooted from New York City and dropped into Columbus, Georgia—a town so foreign she might as well have landed on the moon. With her husband frequently deployed, Simone is left to find her place in this new world, alone—until she meets a remarkable group of women: the wives. Simone Gorrindo holds an MS in journalism, and her writing has appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, New York magazine, and The Best Women’s Travel Writing. She currently lives in Tacoma. The Wives will be published in April 2024. |
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Hanif Fazal / An Other World / Page Two
An Other World: The Fight for Freedom, Joy and Belonging (Page Two/Macmillan) offers a moving blend of social commentary, memoir, and a rousing call to action. Author Hanif Fazal recounts his own experiences growing up as the other in an all-white school system, and of his feelings of being split between his Mexican and Indian heritages. His journey towards racial healing led him to create programs offering healing and belonging to BIPOC youth and adults in schools and in the workplace. Hanif Fazal is a co-founder and managing partner of the Center for Equality and Inclusion, and is also the co-founder of the Equity Certificate Program, which is a collaborative education initiative providing intensive professional development focused on equity and inclusion to educators across multiple school districts. |
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David Nikki Crouse / I'm Here: Alaska Stories / Boreal Books/Red Hen Press
Flannery O’Connor Award-winning author David Nikki Crouse’s new collection of short stories, I’m Here: Alaska Stories (Boreal Books/IPS), describes the difficult lives of people in Fairbanks, Alaska as they move through the long, brilliant days of summer into the deep winter months. These are characters living on the edge, literally and figuratively; complicated, interior lives set against the immense backdrop of the Alaskan Wilderness. Crouse explores the mysteries of his characters identities with empathy and grace. Crouse is the author of the award-winning story collection Copy Cats, and Trouble Will Save You, a collection of three novellas. Their work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Kenyon Review and Witness. Crouse is the Millman Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Washington. |