Authors on Tap: Robyn Hitchcock and Lior Phillips

Please join us in person on Sunday, August 30th at 5:00pm central to help celebrate Robyn Hitchcock's new book, Stranded in the Future. Robyn will be in conversation with Lior Phillips!

About Stranded in the Future:

STRANDED IN THE FUTURE is a kind of dystopian self-portrait. It's about obsession, and obsessive behavior. Spanning from 1968 to 1978, it takes in the mythology that teenagers weave around their musical heroes and their early loves: in this case, one specific hero and one specific love. The book explores the way that Hitchcock, in his own head, linked these two figures to each other, although they never actually met.

On the way, the story mines the incremental hangover of the 1970s as Hitchcock begins to play live, teaches himself to write songs, and eventually forms the Soft Boys. There's a side order of trolleybuses too! Hitchcock's beautiful prose will resonate far beyond the fans of his music, and build on the literary following he established with his first book, 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left.

About the authors:

Robyn Hitchcock is a rock ’n’ roll surrealist. Born in London in 1953, he describes his songs as “paintings you can listen to.” As much a child of Dalí, de Chirico, and J. G. Ballard as of his 1960s musical heroes, he is a master of the absurd, reveling in the beauty of the unexpected. His first band, the Soft Boys (1976–81), has remained an influential art-rock touchstone for generations of musicians. Hitchcock has floated at a tangent to the mainstream for five decades, and his songs have been performed by R.E.M., the Replacements, Neko Case, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Lou Barlow, Uncle Tupelo, Vic Chesnutt, Grant-Lee Phillips, Sparklehorse, and Suzanne Vega with the Grateful Dead, among others. He came of age in the 1960s while he attended Winchester College, an eccentric hothouse boarding school in the south of England. Hitchcock is the author of 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left, and lives in Nashville with his wife Emma Swift and their two cats, Ringo and Tubby.

Lior Phillips is a journalist, author, and host whose work has helped bring the sound, stories, and struggles of global music to international audiences. Born in South Africa, based in Chicago, she writes at the intersection of culture, identity, and sound. Her debut book, South African Popular Music (Bloomsbury, 2023), traces the nation's musical history from 1940s mbube harmonies through contemporary amapiano and gqom. She is currently writing Cher's Believe for the iconic 33⅓ series, publishing November 12, 2026. Known for pairing deep research with a lyrical touch, she has contributed to The New York Times, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Variety, Billboard, Pitchfork, GRAMMY.com, Dazed, The Quietus, GQ South Africa, NPR, Wondering Sound, and many more — since 2014. As host of the acclaimed podcast This Must Be the Gig on the Consequence Podcast Network, she has conducted hundreds of long-form conversations with artists including Alicia Keys, David Byrne, Shirley Manson, Black Thought, Ólafur Arnalds, and The Cranberries. She lives in Chicago with her twin sons.

About the event:

This is a free, in person event and registration is required. Please click on the link below to register for free! Robyn and Lior will be happy to sign/personalize copies of their books after the event! Can't make it to the event? Signed copies will be available in store and online with national shipping.