BookPeople and Writers' League of Texas Present: February Third Thursday

Please welcome Jennifer Chang, Alina Grabowski, and Amanda Eyre Ward in a panel discussion moderated by Sarah Renee Beach in Writers' League of Texas' February Third Thursday, "The Ties that Bind Us: Writing Complicated Relationships."

This event is free and open to the public.

• Start time: 7:00 P.M.
• Run time: 45-60 minutes, followed by a signing line.
• Location: The second floor of BookPeople.

The authors will be signing and personalizing copies of their books after the speaking portion of the event.

• To get a book signed, a copy of the book or an item of equal value must be purchased from BookPeople.

Guidelines:

• Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

• If you have any other questions, please visit our Eventbrite FAQ. If your question isn't covered in the FAQ, feel free to email us at [email protected].
• All event guidelines are subject to change.
• BookPeople reserves the right to cancel or postpone this event if necessary.
• There will not be a live stream or recording available.

About the book:

WLT hosts Third Thursday each month, featuring discussions focusing on specific topics of interest to writers and readers, bringing together distinguished panelists for conversations moderated by a WLT staff member.

The February Third Thursday will be an in-person event on the second floor at BookPeople.

Whether it be blood, love, or circumstance that binds us, we are interconnected beings with lives hopelessly intertwined. Perhaps this is why there’s no richer source for plot or tension in a piece of writing than relationships. Books that explore and mine these complications rather than reduce them are the ones that stay with us long after we’ve reached THE END and are the ones we can’t help but discuss at length with our own circle of connections.

How does a writer delve into such a topic and stay true to the nuances and complexities of our real relationships? We’ll be joined by three authors — Jennifer Chang (An Authentic Life), Alina Grabowski (Women and Children First), and Amanda Eyre Ward (Lovers and Liars) — whose recent books do just that. Join us to hear about how they’ve explored and rendered complex relationships on the page.

This conversation will be moderated by WLT Program Director Sarah Renee Beach. Come out and say hello to your friendly WLT staff, meet other writers, and soak up the awesomeness that is our literary community.

About the authors:

Jennifer Chang is the author of The History of Anonymity and Some Say the Lark, which received the 2018 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. Her most recent book of poetry is An Authentic Life, published in 2024 with Copper Canyon Press. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, The Believer, Best American Poetry 2012 and 2022, Georgia Review, The New Yorker, The New York Times, A Public Space, and Yale Review. Her essays on poetry and poetics, race, and culture have appeared in Blackwell’s Companion to the Harlem Renaissance, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Margins, New Literary History, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature and Culture, and The Volta. She is the poetry editor of New England Review and teaches at the University of Texas in Austin.
Alina Grabowski grew up in coastal Massachusetts and holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University. Her debut novel, Women and Children First, was published in 2024. She lives in Austin, Texas.
Amanda Eyre Ward is The New York Times bestselling author of Sleep Toward Heaven, How to Be Lost, Love Stories in This Town, Forgive Me, Close Your Eyes, The Same Sky, The Nearness of You, The Jetsetters, The Lifeguards and Lovers and Liars. Her bestselling novels have been featured in People Magazine, The New York Times, and more. Amanda publishes nonfiction in Travel + Leisure, The New York Times, Texas Monthly, and more, and publishes original work on Audible.com. Amanda’s work has been optioned for film and television and translated into fifteen languages. She lives in Austin, TX.

About the moderator:

Sarah Renee Beach is the Program Director for the Writers' League of Texas. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the New School, and she is also an alum of the Tin House Summer Workshop. Her poetry chapbook Impact won Sundress Publication's 2022 Chapbook Contest.

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Thank you for supporting Writers' League of Texas, Jennifer Chang, Alina Grabowski, Amanda Eyre Ward, Sarah Renee Beach, and your local independent bookstore!

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