Book Talk: I Have This Thing for Flowers

Cataloguing many of the great romances and loves of her life, Sawchyn examines the kinds of love that can't be explained.
About this Event

Book Talk: I Have This Thing for Flowers

with Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn

Thursday, August 13 | 5:30 - 7 pm

A story of love, marriage, and flowers from beloved writer and gardening enthusiast Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn

Six months before her wedding, Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn’s fiancé broke off their engagement. Stunned, reeling, and newly uninsured, Alysia married her friend Sarah in an arrangement that secured them both free health insurance. They moved in together in the midst of the pandemic, and with time and while tending a garden, their marriage of convenience grew into a marriage of love.

In science, art, and mythology, we cannot help but to see flowers as metaphors for the fleeting nature of youth, vitality, and love. It’s easy to casually admire something beautiful, but it takes a discerning eye to appreciate the effort that went into nourishing and tending to that beauty. In both gardening and relationships, one cannot expect to fill your garden with flowers if you are unwilling—or unable—to put in the work they need to thrive. In I Have This Thing For Flowers, Sawchyn does just that, likening the many flowers she has grown in her gardens to a range of relationships and moments of her life, reflecting on topics from motherhood to perfumery to scientific illustration.

Cataloguing many of the great romances and loves of her life like an herbarium of flowers preserved from the garden, Sawchyn examines the kinds of love that can't be explained.

Malaprops will be selling books during the talk and also available as an "add-on" to your ticket. Alysia will be signing books following the talk.

Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn is a writer, editor, and educator living in Western North Carolina. Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of The Rumpus magazine, she has received fellowships from the Kenyon Review and the Sewanee Writers' Conferences. Their first essay collection, A Fish Growing Lungs, was a finalist for The Believer Book Award.

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