Gina Wagner: Forces of Nature

Schedule

Tue Aug 27 2024 at 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm

Location

Changing Hands Bookstore | Tempe, AZ

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About this Event

Award-winning journalist and author Gina Wagner discusses her latest in conversation with Nora McInerny.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Forces of Nature explores the intersections of disability and loss, nature and nurture, families of origin and families of choice. It begins with the moment the author, Gina DeMillo Wagner, finds out her brother Alan, who had a complicated genetic disorder, is dead. From there, she takes readers along as she is pulled away from the safety of her friends, away from her husband and kids, and thrust back into a family she has been estranged from for nearly ten years. The memoir documents this rewinding and revisiting of the past, plus Alan's Christmas-themed funeral, an investigation into Alan's cause of death, Wagner's unraveling in the face of complicated grief, and finally the day - ten months later - when her parents divide his cremated remains and bury him in separate states. Within this framework, Wagner weaves in scenes from her childhood that illustrate what it's like to be a sister and caregiver to a sibling with disabilities, the daughter of a mentally ill parent, and how she forges her own path and find peace by creating a family of choice.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gina DeMillo Wagner is an award-winning journalist and author. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Memoir Magazine, Modern Loss, Self, Outside, CRAFT Literary, and other publications. She is a winner of the CRAFT Creative Nonfiction Award, and her memoir, Forces of Nature: A Memoir of Family, Loss, and Finding Home, was longlisted for the 2022 SFWP Literary Award. She lives and works near Boulder, Colorado. To learn more about Gina and her work, please visit www.ginawagner.com.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR
​​​​​​​
Nora McInerny was voted Most Humorous by the Annunciation Catholic School Class of 1997. Since then, she’s written the bestselling memoirs It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too) and No Happy Endings, as well as The Hot Young Widows Club, Bad Moms, and Bad Vibes Only. She hosts the award-winning podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking and It's Going To Be OK, has spoken on TED’s mainstage, and has contributed to publications like The New York Times, Time, Slate, and Vox. She is very tall and lives in Central Phoenix with her family and their many pets. Learn more at www.noraborealis.com.

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Where is it happening?

Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 South McClintock Drive, Tempe, United States

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