Launch Party: Accumulation by Aimee Pokwatka

Join us in celebrating beloved local author Aimee Pokwatka on the launch of her newest novel, Accumulation. She’ll be in conversation with Lauren Porté Schwarzfeld, followed by a book signing and cocktails.

Books will be available for purchase.

About the book:

A twisty, searing, conversation-starting novel about a filmmaker-turned-housewife who moves into her dream house and is forced to consider whether it's the house or herself that is haunted.
When documentary filmmaker turned stay-at-home mom Tennessee Cherish moves into the the dream house her husband bought for her, a brighter future seems to be on the horizon. Even if her husband is frustratingly absent due to his new high-paying job. Even if their two young children begin acting out in strange ways. Even if she feels lonelier than ever.
Distracted by the endless details that come with moving into a new town, a new house, and new schools, Tenn doesn’t notice when odd things begin happening at home. The faucet that runs at all hours. The creepy doll that seems to show up in every room. The human tooth they found in the floorboards.
As the kids’ outbursts and the strange events start to escalate, the family finds themselves increasingly caught in loops, repeating everyday actions with dangerous—and then devastating—effects. Tenn realizes she must find the source of what is haunting her family, before it kills them all.
Taut and twisty, scary and searing, Aimee Pokwatka’s Accumulation lays bare the high price women pay for the promises of domesticity and motherhood, and the many ways in which families can be haunted.

About Aimee Pokwatka:

Aimee Pokwatka is the author of the genre-bending novels Accumulation, Self-Portrait with Nothing, and The Parliament. Born and raised in Wheeling, West Virginia, she studied anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she helped catalog a collection of archaic-period human skeletal remains. She received her MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University. She lives in a haunted house in New York with her family.

About Lauren Porté Schwarzfeld:

Lauren is the Chief Marketing Officer for Rise Literary, a hybrid publisher and book coaching company. She has spent the past 25 years working in sales, fundraising, and marketing through various industries, realizing that the most powerful part of a storied work history is the wide variety of human connection. In 2025 Lauren was the co-producer of TEDxOjai featuring 12 speakers through the daylong event in Ojai, CA. She is the co-founder of RiseLive, a new global speaking series amplifying new voices on new stages, launching with two events in 2026. She is endlessly curious, a lover of books, travel, and new adventures. Lauren lives in Mt. Kisco, NY.

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Host or Publisher Bedford Books