Jenny Bartoy and contributors — 'No Contact: Writers on Estrangement'

Third Place Books welcomes editor Jenny Bartoy and contributors Kristen Millares Young, Jane Wong, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, and Gabriela Denise Frank to our Ravenna store for a conversation about their new collection — a poignant and galvanizing anthology that illuminates the realities and nuances of family estrangement.

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“A landmark work around a theme so prominent—and yet so thoroughly ignored—in modern life.” —Ocean Vuong
A poignant and galvanizing anthology that illuminates the realities and nuances of family estrangement, with pieces by Stephanie Foo, Nick Flynn, Deesha Philyaw, Cheryl Strayed, and others
Estrangement presents an essential existential question: who are we without our family? What kind of person cuts the proverbial umbilical cord and why? And who do we become, once untethered from our kin?
Families fall apart and individuals cut ties for myriad reasons—abuse, politics, mental illness, and addiction, among others—and reunification often is not in the cards. Estrangement can be a positive change, as Emi Nietfeld explains in her essay about finding relief and logic after cutting off her mother. It can be a journey: noam keim rebuilds their sense of self by learning Arabic in their ancestral homeland of Morocco, while Nicole Graev Lipson searches for answers in literature and motherhood after her brother ghosts her. Other writers explore how estrangement complicates life’s big shifts—Domenica Ruta traces the repercussions of severing ties while battling cancer; Hannah Bae reels from the prospect of cultural alienation when she cuts off her Korean parents; and after twenty years of separation, Soni Brown reluctantly becomes her mother’s caretaker as dementia erases her memory.
Through thirty-two intimate, first-person accounts, No Contact counters the prevalent trope of reconciliation as a happy ending, focusing instead on the complex grief, healing, and authenticity found in the rupture from family.
Featuring work by Hannah Bae, Eben E. B. Bein, Soni Brown, Lorne Daniel, Lindsey Danis, Michelle Dowd, Nick Flynn, Stephanie Foo, Gabriela Denise Frank, Susan Ito, Danielle Jernigan, noam keim, Erika Krouse, Monique Laban, Cassandra Lewis, Kate Lewis, Nicole Graev Lipson, Tiffany Aldrich MacBain, Jamal Mahjoub, Onita Morgan-Edwards, Emi Nietfeld, Geneva Phillips, Deesha Philyaw, Anna Qu, Domenica Ruta, Oslyn Serratos, Alyson Shelton, Cheryl Strayed, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Raksha Vasudevan, Jane Wong, and Kristen Millares Young.

Jenny Bartoy is a French American editor and critic. Her writing appears in several anthologies and in such publications as The Boston Globe, The Seattle Times, Under the Gum Tree, Room, Chicago Review of Books, CrimeReads, and The Rumpus, among others. She holds a master's degree from Columbia University and lives in Tacoma, Washington.
Kristen Millares Young is the author of the memoir Desire Lines (Red Hen Press, October 6, 2026) and the novel Subduction, a staff pick of The Paris Review. Called “searching, generous, and unrelenting” by Melissa Febos, Desire Lines is a forensic investigation into the emotional topography of being a woman, a writer, and a mother. Ms. Magazine named Desire Lines a “Most Anticipated Feminist Book of 2026.” Winner of Nautilus and Independent Publisher Book Awards, Subduction was a finalist for two International Latino Book Awards and Foreword Indies Book of the Year.
Jane Wong is the author of the debut memoir Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, out now from Tin House. She is also the author of two books of poetry: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James (2021) and Overpour from Action Books (2016). An associate professor of creative writing at Western Washington University, she grew up in New Jersey and currently lives in Seattle, Washington.
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of seven books, and the editor of six anthologies. Her most recent title, Touching the Art, was a finalist for a Washington State Book Award and a Pacific Northwest Book Award. Her previous title, The Freezer Door, was a New York Times Editors' Choice and a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. Her new novel is Terry Dactyl.
Gabriela Denise Frank is a transdisciplinary artist, editor, educator, and winner of the Fern Academy Prize for the essay. The author of How to Not Become the Breaking, her writing and visual art appear in BOMB Magazine, Chicago Review, Fairy Tale Review, Epoch, DIAGRAM, Northwest Review, EcoTheo Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Off the page, Gabriela seeks to expand the accessibility, definition, and experience of literary art by interweaving stories with the path of everyday life. A Jack Straw Writer, her work is supported by 4Culture, Carolyn Moore House, Centrum, City of Burien, Civita Institute, Jack Straw Cultural Center, Marble House, Mineral School, Seattle Public Library, Shunpike, Vermont Studio Center, and Willapa Bay AIR. Sometimes, she writes without using all the letters. www.gabrieladenisefrank.com

Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, Third Place Books is dedicated to the creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. With locations in Lake Forest Park and Seattle's Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods, Third Place Books is proud to serve the entire Seattle metro area. Learn more about their event series at thirdplacebooks.com/events.

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