Author event! Mary Jones and Victoria Patterson

Zibby’s Bookshop is excited to partner with Girls Right Now to host Zibby Books' author Mary Jones to celebrate the launch of THE GOODBYE PROCESS! Mary will be joined by Victoria Patterson.

About the book:

“Short story fans might just discover their new favorite author in this arresting collection, a must-have.” — The Library Journal (starred review)

What happens when you are forced to let go of the things you love the most? What are you left with?

In her stunning debut short story collection, The Goodbye Process, Mary Jones uses her distinctive voice to examine the painful and sometimes surreal ways we say goodbye.

The stories—which range from tender and heartbreaking to unsettling and darkly funny—will push you out of your comfort zone and ignite intense emotions surrounding love and loss. A woman camps out on the porch of an ex-lover who has barricaded himself inside the house; a preteen girl caught shoplifting finds herself in grave danger; a Los Angeles real estate agent falls for a woman who helps him detach from years of dramatic plastic surgery; a man hires a professional mourner to ensure his wife’s funeral is a success. Again and again, Jones’s characters find themselves facing the ends of things: relationships, health, and innocence.

Arresting, original, and beautifully rendered, this story collection packs a punch, just the way grief does―knocking us off our feet.

About the speakers:

Mary Jones’s stories and essays have appeared in many journals including Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, Subtropics, EPOCH, Alaska Quarterly Review, Columbia Journal, The Hopkins Review, Gay Mag, The Normal School, Epiphany, Santa Monica Review, Brevity and elsewhere. The recipient of a summer prose fellowship from The University of Arizona Poetry Center, her work has been cited as notable in The Best American Essays and appeared in The Best Microfiction 2022. She holds an MFA from Bennington College and teaches fiction writing at UCLA Extension. Originally from Upstate New York, she lives in Los Angeles.

An author with three novels and two story collections, Victoria Patterson lives with her family in South Pasadena and teaches fiction at Antioch University’s Master of Fine Arts Program.

Girls Write Now: Founded a quarter century ago, the nationally award-wining writing and mentoring organization Girls Write Now has had the long-standing mission of breaking down barriers of gender, race, age, and poverty to mentor and train the next generation of writers and leaders. Building inclusive creative communities, Girls Write Now has empowered young women and gender-expansive youth to harness their talents, gain confidence, skills, and a community supporting them in sharing stories the world needs to hear.

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