Join us on Oct 14th at 7pm for one of our first in person events since 2020, a double book launch for Florida writers Ryan Rivas (NEXTDOOR IN COLONIALTOWN, Autofocus Lit) and Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya (HELEN HOUSE, Burrow Press) and featuring Kristen Arnett (WITH TEETH, MOSTLY DEAD THINGS). The event will be hosted at the Civic Media Center (433 S Main St) in order to accommodate a larger audience. Masks are required.
Event is free, but we encourage guests to purchase a book to support the authors and the store. Books will be available to purchase on-site.
About the authors:
Ryan Rivas is the author of Nextdoor in Colonialtown (Autofocus 2022). He is the Publisher of Burrow Press, and the Coordinator of MFA Publishing at Stetson University’s MFA of the Americas creative writing program. A Macondo Writers Workshop fellow, his work has appeared in The Believer, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, Necessary Fiction, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012, and elsewhere.
Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is a lesbian writer of short fiction, essays, and pop culture criticism living in Florida. She is the managing editor of Autostraddle and the assistant managing editor of TriQuarterly. Her work appears in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Catapult, The Offing, The Rumpus, Joyland, Vice, Vulture, and others. She was a 2021 nonfiction fellow for Lambda Literary's Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. Helen House is her first book.
Kristen Arnett is the author of With Teeth: A Novel (Riverhead Books, 2021) which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction and the New York Times bestselling debut novel Mostly Dead Things (Tin House, 2019) which was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction and was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. She is a queer fiction and essay writer. She was awarded a Shearing Fellowship at Black Mountain Institute and was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize recognizing mid-career writers of fiction. Her work has appeared at The New York Times, TIME, The Cut, Oprah Magazine, Guernica, Buzzfeed, McSweeneys, PBS Newshour, The Guardian, Salon, and elsewhere. Her next book (an untitled collection of short stories) will be published by Riverhead Books (Penguin Random House). She has a Masters in Library and Information Science from Florida State University and currently lives in Miami, Florida. You can find her on Twitter here: @Kristen_Arnett