AUTHOR EVENT | Annabelle Gurwitch: The End of My Life is Killing Me

THE END OF MY LIFE IS KILLING ME is a mordantly funny and unsentimental memoir that lives at the intersection of personal experience, social zeitgeist, and health care policy. Granted a temporary reprieve from death, actress, activist, New York Times bestselling author Annabelle Gurwitch offers an invitation to curiosity, and ultimately an ode to joy.

“I didn’t want to adopt a performative indefatigability or accomplish heroic feats that would turn me into someone’s idea of a cancer warrior. I vowed to be an underachiever. A cancer slacker.”

Over the course of her career, Gurwitch has earned high praise for her wringing humor, from pathos and locating sublimity in absurdity on the fault lines of contemporary confusions. Readers have eagerly followed her dispatches on parenting, aging, the gig economy, downward mobility and her droll incisive takes on consumer culture. “Gurwitch manages to find humor in any setback" Tara Parker Pope wrote in the New York Times of her "surprisingly upbeat” You're Leaving When?. Now, she outdoes herself as she tackles nothing short of the eternal and the essential.

6PM Conversation | Free Event

7PM Book Signing

ANNABELLE GURWITCH is an actress, activist, and New York Times bestselling author of six books and a two-time finalist for the Thurber Prize. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, and Haaretz, amongst other publications. The long-time co-host of Dinner & A Movie on TBS, the most popular cable show on Friday nights during her stint, a regular commentator on NPR, heracting credits include Seinfeld, Dexter, Better Things, and movies Daddy Day Care, The Shaggy Dog, and Ambulance. A long-time activist, she is a frequent contributor to the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, founded by her friend and mentor Barbara Ehrenreich. She is a breast and lung cancer survivor. Along with her advocacy in the cancer world, she leads writing workshops for The Campfire Project providing therapeutic arts programming for young migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. She lives in Los Angeles.

COREY ROSKIN has been programming and co-producing literary events for 23 years including the West Hollywood Book Fair, Lambda Lit Fest, Omega Sci-Fi Awards and Palm Springs Pride on the Page. For 29 years he also worked for the City of West Hollywood, most notably coordinating special events and projects as part of the City’s Social Services Division. Roskin currently serves on the Board of the Palm Springs Public Library Foundation and on the special events team at the Palm Springs Cultural Center. He also dabbles in writing fiction and personal stories and has volunteered for a variety of social services and cultural arts programs for almost 40 years.

Palm Springs comes alive this summer with XOXO Palm Springs, a new citywide festival showcasing the creativity, stories, and artistic spirit that define our desert community. For twelve days, the city transforms into an open‑air cultural playground — from theaters and galleries to historic landmarks, boutique hotels, and outdoor stages.

Set on the ancestral lands of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, XOXO Palm Springs honors the region’s deep cultural roots while celebrating the artists, performers, and visionaries shaping its future. Whether you’re drawn to dance, film, architecture, visual arts, live music, or immersive experiences, this festival invites you to explore Palm Springs through a new creative lens.

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Host or Publisher Palm Springs Cultural Center