Kate Laack

Name: Kate Laack
Start: 2026-06-24T18:00:00-05:00
Location: 1863 Monroe St, Madison, WI, United States, Wisconsin 53711

Schedule

Wed, 24 Jun, 2026 at 06:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

1863 Monroe St, Madison, WI, United States, Wisconsin 53711 | Madison, WI

ABOUT THE BOOK: Jordan Marlowe needs a plan. Fresh out of her MFA program, she's bombed an interview at Columbia, collected a stack of rejections from agents and publishers, and stalled out in a spiral of writer's block. Meanwhile, her best friend is thriving in a PhD program, and her boyfriend is climbing the tech ladder.
Then a delayed flight pushes Jordan into an airport bookstore, and everything changes. On the shelf, she finds a debut novel: The Unbearable Weight of Secrets by Beatrice Mitchell. Just a few paragraphs in, her exhaustion turns to shock. The book isn't just familiar. It's hers: a manuscript she drafted, revised, and workshopped years earlier, but never published.
Stunned, Jordan launches a desperate search for answers. Who stole her work, and why? A critique partner who read an early draft? An ambitious classmate eager for a leg up? Her mentor, with the most access to her writing but the most to lose by risking her own, successful career? Or someone else entirely, a stranger who inexplicably knows Jordan's voice as well as she does?
To reclaim her story, Jordan must be willing to risk everything: her relationship, her future career, and her already fragile belief in herself. Because unmasking Beatrice Mitchell isn't just about justice. It's about proving, once and for all, that Jordan Marlowe isn't just chasing the dream of being a writer. She already is one.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kate Laack is a high school English teacher, theater director, and author. She earned degrees in English and secondary education from the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, where she got her start in publishing with the university newspaper. Her freelance work has appeared on Thought Catalog, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Comedy Show Show, and elsewhere. Kate lives in Pine Island, Minnesota, with her husband Josh and their rescue dog Oakley in a home they built themselves. She is a classically trained pianist, has run four marathons, and still uses a paper planner. By Any Other Name is her third novel.