Book Launch for Deborah Jiang-Stein's LUCKY TOMORROW: STORIES

Please join us to celebrate the launch of Lucky Tomorrow: Stories, by Deborah Jiang-Stein, at the Children's Theatre Company, Bazinet Rehearsal Hall, 2400 3rd Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55404, on Thursday, May 29, 2025, at 6:30 PM.

The author will be in conversation with Shá Cage.

Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Birchbark Books.

For a Lucky Tomorrow Buy a Flower Today. Is it true? a prospective customer asks. About the luck? “Absolutely!” Felma says. Flowers, she knows, are all that’s anchored in this world, even if not for long, and like others in these luminous stories, Felma knows what it is to be rootless. In Lucky Tomorrow, Deborah Jiang-Stein presents an unforgettable cast of characters dreaming of redemption, purpose, and connection in a wounded yet beautiful world.

A young girl stuck working at her family’s candy stand. A former priest trapped on a crowded train. A prisoner robbed of the book she’s been writing. A father haunted by his broken family. A woman confined to a psych ward. A reverend caring for her dying housemate. And Felma, a flower vendor, searching for the daughter she gave birth to while in Pr*son, who was swiftly bundled away. Felma’s story leads us in, through, and around the others—a central beating heart for these lives on the fringes, where Jiang-Stein finds a singular, tenacious humanity.

The stories in Lucky Tomorrow move through settings drawn from the path of the author’s own life: Seattle, where she grew up after being born in an Appalachian Pr*son; Tokyo, where she once lived; the Twin Cities, where she currently resides; and the American South, where she travels for much of her advocacy work with women in Pr*son. Pushing the boundaries of genre, Jiang-Stein delicately layers the stories of these outcasts, eccentrics, and visionaries, gathering them in from the shadows with remarkable empathy and candor, laying bare our shared sorrows and joys.

Deborah Jiang-Stein is an award-winning writer, public speaker, collaborator, and author of the memoir Pr*son Baby. She is founder of the unPrison Project, working with and mentoring people in prisons to build life skills.

Shá Cage is a renaissance artist who writes, acts, and directs. She has been called a change-maker and one of the leading artists of her generation. Her work has taken her across the U.S. to Japan, Africa, England, Bosnia, Canada, France, Sweden, Germany and more. She was seen last on stage in the one woman tour de force Re-Memori at Penumbra Theater and as Hermione in Ten Thousand Things Winter’s Tale and Lady Capulet in The Guthrie Theater’s Romeo and Juliet. She has led racial justice & equity work in community through Tru Ruts and Catalyst Arts for a combined 23 years, Film work through Black Star Studios, and artistic leadership with Full Circle Theater. She holds TCG, McKnight, Doris Duke, Emmy and Ivey awards and is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild, Actor’s Equity and SAG. She is writing her first book titled Art Changes Everything.

More details:

• The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
• Enter at the blue doors labeled "Stage Door" on the corner of 25th Street and 3rd Avenue, directly across from the parking ramp.
• We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact Heather Skinner at [email protected].

Host or Publisher University of Minnesota Press