2025 Books Around the Bend Lunch
Tuesday, September 30 - 12:45 pm - 2:00 pm
DoubleTree City Center, Spokane WA, Salon IV
Tuesday, September 30 - 12:45 pm - 2:00 pm
DoubleTree City Center, Spokane WA, Salon IV
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Sponsored by: |
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Tickets required |
To celebrate ten authors with books to look forward to, due to publish in the later winter and spring. Ticketed attendees will have a chance to win a $750 scholarship to next year's show in Portland. (Must be present to Win.)
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In Labor: One Woman’s Work (Avid reader Press/S&S), Dr. Mary Afsari takes us on a deeply personal and transformative journey through her life as an OB/GYN. Set in Portland, Oregon, and Shiraz, Iran, this powerful memoir intertwines the complexities of her professional life with the hidden truths of her family’s past, exploring the intersection of medicine, identity, and the enduring search for agency. Mary's uncovering of the long-buried secret of her Iranian grandmother's death propels her on a quest to untangle the threads of her family’s history while confronting the forces that have shaped her identity and her professional mission. Dr. Mary Afsari is a board-certified OB/GYN, and founder of FemForward Health, a mobile medical clinic serving the Portland area. Labor will be published in April, 2026.
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Taking her inspiration from Shakespeare's greatest mischief maker, Samantha Allen proves in Puck (Zando) that, even in our modern era of the reality TV show, the course of true love never did run smooth. Here Puck is the non-binary, thirty-year-old producer of a show called Homewreckers, used to calling the shots and pulling the strings of the feuding contestants, until a plot twist of Shakespearean proportions makes a mess of their own life. Seattle writer Samantha Allen is the author of several novels, including Patricia Wants to Cuddle, and the Lambda Literary Award finalist Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States, as well as a GLAAD Award-winning journalist. Puck will be published in May, 2026.
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The many fans of Eileen Garvin's acclaimed debut novel The Music of the Bees have been wishing for a sequel for years, and Garvin more than delivers with Bumblebee Season (Dutton). Although a standalone novel, Bumblebee Season carries over both setting and characters that helped propel the previous book to bestsellerdom. With Garvin's trademark honesty and compassion, this novel not only touches on the power of human relationships, but also takes on questions of environmental preservation and the plight of undocumented migrants. Eileen Garvin was raised in Washington but now calls Hood River home; her memoir, How to be a Sister, was named an Indie Next title. Bumblebee Season will be published April, 2026.
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California-based writer Linda Hamilton draws from her own polygamous ancestors and some little-known Mormon folklore for her debut novel, The Fourth Wife (Kensington), a fascinating, suspense-filled historical novel with definite gothic overtones. Set in Utah Territory in the 1880's, this is the story of a woman trying to meet her duty as a Mormon woman, including agreeing to become the fourth sister wife to a man she has never met before. But when she joins her new husband, she finds his dilapidated Salt Lake mansion filled with dark secrets and ominous happenings that grow more terrifying every day. The Fourth Wife will be publishing in March, 2026.
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The familiar tale of Cinderella gets turned on its head in Rachel Hochhauser's Lady Tremaine (St. Martin's Press). Seen through the eyes of the stepmother we all thought of as evil - a woman widowed twice-over and saddled with the care of her two children as well as a feckless step-daughter - the classic tale becomes a propulsive love story about the lengths a mother will go to for her children. Lady Tremaine reimagines the iconic image of the wicked stepmother as a woman left to make her way in the world with her dreams and respectability intact. Lady Tremaine will be published in March, 2026.
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Bestselling young adult fantasy writer Kalyn Josephson makes her debut for adult readers in The Library of Amorlin (Kensington), an enchanting fantasy packed with twists, tricks, slowburn romantic tension, and magical creatures. Sparks and tempers fly when a brilliant con artist and a secretive librarian are thrown together, each concealing secrets and ulterior motives from the other even as their mutual attraction grows. Kayln Josephson is the author of the Ravenfall series, The Storm Crow duology, and the This Dark Descent duology. She also owns an independent, online bookstore called The Cove. The Library of Amorlin will be published in February, 2026.
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Seattle author Molly Ringle returns her readers to the enchanted island Of Eidolonia in The Quicksand Theater Company (Central Avenue), a cozy, queer fantasy featuring a runaway witch, a cursed actor, and a magical theatre troupe full of sequins and secrets. Full of romance and rebellion, this is the story of human and fae brought together by chance and finding mutual desire, while both deal with secrets from the past. Long drawn to queer literature and other works that challenge and reshape cultures, Molly Ringle is the author of two other standalone novels set in the world of Eidolonia, Ballad for Jasmine Town and Lava Red Feather Blue. The Quicksand Theater Company will be published in February, 2026.
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Gabriel Tallent's new novel, Crux (Riverhead Books), is the story of intense friendship and grit, as two down-and-out teens escape the hopelessness of their lives and chase a different future through rock-climbing. With a magnificent gift for nature writing and a joyful appreciation for the redemptive power of friendship, Gabriel Tallent gives readers a rollicking, adrenaline-filled, and soul-searching novel about risking everything to change your life. Tallent's debut novel, My Absolute Darling was a New York Times bestseller and New York Times Notable Book, as well as a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and for the NBCC John Leonard Prize. Crux will be published in January, 2026.
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Laura Taylor Namey, the NYT and internationally bestselling writer, offers a love story that spans life and death in If We Never End (Bloomsbury YA/Macmillan). Sylvie Castellano is used to goodbyes. Every summer, her friends leave for faraway beaches and her parents jet off to work on a luxury yacht. Just once, Sylvie wishes the summer held a big adventure for her, too. And then the extraordinary happens. Laura Taylor Namey is author of several novels for young adults, including Reese’s Book Club pick A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, and A British Girl’s Guide to Hurricanes and Heartbreak. If We Never End will be published in February, 2026.
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When all one's dreams have been stripped away, what does it take to survive? In Suzy Vitello's new novel Griftopia (Sibylline Press/IPS), the Freischen clan has hit bottom through a combination of bad luck, bad decisions, and hard times. In need of quick cash, they turn to a series of increasingly dubious internet scams, grifting their way towards economic survival. Portland author Vitello has long been interested in families caught in emotional peril, exploring in her fiction the fractured lives of those on the margins. Suzy Vitello has published several novels including Bitterroot, Faultland, and most recently, The Bequest. She is also the Managing Editor at Sibylline Press. Griftopia will be published in May, 2026.
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