Book launch with Julie Schumacher

Join Milkweed Editions as we launch Julie Schumacher's new short story collection, Patient, Female. The author will be joined by special guest Claire Lombardo for a reading and conversation.

ABOUT THE BOOK

An unsuspecting couple is treated to a luxury vacation by their deceased neighbor. After begrudgingly agreeing to volunteer at a nursing home, a middle school girl gambles over games of bridge with elderly residents. A single mother struggles to understand the unique bond between her autistic son and his dying grandmother. Four friends experience decades of highs and lows as pawns in The Game of Life. A professional gynecology patient runs into a high school flame while at work, undressed, on the job.

In this irreverent collection, celebrated novelist Julie Schumacher balances sorrow against laughter. Here, we experience story not only as narrative, but as syllabus and as board game. Each protagonist—ranging from girlhood to senescence—receives her own indelible voice as she navigates social blunders, generational misunderstandings, and the absurdity of the human experience. Exquisitely honest and expertly crafted, Patient, Female renders—with dark humor and wit—the foibles of human behavior and our endearing imperfections.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Julie Schumacher is the author of eleven books, including the national bestseller Dear Committee Members, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Schumacher’s other works include two short story collections, a satirical coloring book, and five novels for young readers. Her essays and stories have appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Ms., The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and in The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Awards annual anthologies. She is a Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota, where she has received multiple teaching awards and has been recognized as a Scholar of the College. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Claire Lombardo is the author of the nationally-bestselling novel Same As It Ever Was. Her debut, The Most Fun We Ever Had, was an instant New York Times bestseller and a Reese’s Book Club pick. Her novels have been translated or are forthcoming in over a dozen languages. Claire is a graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her short fiction has appeared in, among others, Playboy, Barrelhouse Magazine, Little Fiction, and Longform. She has taught fiction writing at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Grinnell College and worked as a bookseller at Prairie Lights Books. She lives in Minneapolis.

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