BOOK LAUNCH: THE MINIMALIST by Kailee Pedersen
About this Event
For fans of Tár and The Piano Teacher, this gruesome and unsettling psychological drama is a darkly lucid portrait of a classical composer’s descent into madness.
We're honored to welcome Kailee Pedersen to The Twisted Spine on August 18, to celebrate the release of The Minimalist! Kailee will be joined in conversation by Kosoko Jackson (THE FOREST DEMANDS ITS DUE).
About THE MINIMALIST:
As the last and greatest student of famed minimalist composer Ryder Wakefield, Mia Voss’s rise to prominence in the insular world of classical music has long been assured. When Ryder dies unexpectedly, she inherits everything—including the unfinished manuscript of his final composition, the mysterious Death Fugue: Music for Orchestra.
Haunted by memories of her tragic romance with Ryder’s late son, Oliver—like Mia, an Asian American adoptee—Mia leaves her girlfriend behind and returns to Ryder’s home to finish his last work. There, Mia is forced to confront her complex relationship with Ryder, who hid his Jewish and gay identities to become one of the most important twentieth-century American composers; her lingering guilt over Oliver’s suicide; and her own musical ambition as the manuscript begins to exert a disturbing, mesmerizing hold over her.
Drawn from the author’s own experiences as an adoptee and classical musician, The Minimalist is a harrowing examination of loss, torment, mental illness, self-harm, and artistic self-destruction.
About the speakers:
Kailee Pedersen writes haunted, unsettling speculative fiction. She graduated with a BA in classics from Columbia University, specializing in ancient Greek. Kailee was adopted from Nanning, China and grew up in Nebraska, where her family owns a farm. She is the author of the queer poetry chapbook Pastorale and the novel Sacrificial Animals, which was named one of the New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2024 and a finalist for Best Horror at the 2025 Libby Book Awards.
When not scribbling down her next book, you can catch her studying opera performance at the Mozarteum University, playing video games, or working as a software engineer in New York City. The Minimalist is her second novel. Visit her website at kaileepedersen.com.
Kosoko Jackson is the Lambda Literary Award–winning author of the USA Today bestseller The Forest Demands Its Due. He is also a student at Stony Brook University, pursuing an MFA in Film and a Visiting Professor in Seton Hill University's Popular Fiction program. When not writing, he’s trying to watch one hundred movies a year, working on his directing or assistant directing short films or juggling teaching responsibilities. He lives in New Jersey with his golden retriever, Artemis.
Event guidelines:
Each ticket includes either a hardback copy THE MINIMALIST or a $15 Twisted Spine gift card.
Limited additional copies of the books will be available for purchase at the event.
A signing will follow the discussion.
If you have any questions about the guidelines or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact [email protected].
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 17.85 to USD 34.57
