Maris Kreizman + Special Guests: I Want to Burn This Place Down
About this Event
Moderating the conversation are fellow writers Megan Greenwell and Amanda Hess. This event will be hosted in the Strand Book Store's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at 828 Broadway on 12th Street.
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Strand Book Store is an ADA compliant venue. The event space is accessible via elevator. Please ask a Strand employee upon arrival for directions to accessible seating if preferred.
ASL interpretation is available for this event by request only. Please reach out to our events team at [email protected] by July 1to request.
For further information on accessibility in this space, or to make a request, please contact [email protected].
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A TIME Must-Read of 2025
A debut essay collection by the inimitable cultural critic Maris Kreizman—an introspective, searing account of the life experiences that have pushed this former “good Democrat” even further to the political left
At the heart of this funny, acerbic, and bravely honest book of essays is Maris Kreizman, a former rule follower and ambition monster who once believed the following truths to be self-evident: that working very hard would lead to admission to a good college, which would lead to a good job at a good company, which would then lead to personal fulfillment and a sense of purpose, along with adequate health care and eventual home ownership and plenty of money waiting in a retirement account. Like any good Democrat and feminist, she believed that if she just worked hard and played by the rules, she was guaranteed a safe and comfortable life.
Now in her forties, the only thing Maris Kreizman knows for sure is that she no longer has faith in American institutions or any of their hollow promises. Now she knows that the rules are meant to serve some folks better than others; and, actually, they serve no one all that well—not even Kreizman. Disturbed by the depth and scope of the liberal myths in which she once so fervently believed, Kreizman takes readers on an intimate journey that revisits some of her most profound revelations, demonstrating that it’s never too late to become radicalized.
With Kreizman’s signature wit and blunt self-reflection, and more than a little transformative rage, I Want to Burn This Place Down is a book for anyone who wishes they could go back in time to give their younger selves the real truth about the fractured country they have inherited—and the encouragement to rebuild something better in its place.
Maris Kreizman is the author of I Want to Burn This Place Down (Ecco, 2025). She’s an essayist and a columnist for Literary Hub whose work has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, the Atlantic, Vanity Fair, the New Republic, GQ, and Esquire, among others. She hosted The Maris Review, an intimate author interview podcast, from 2018 to 2023, and now The Maris Review lives on as a newsletter. She was previously the editorial director of Book of the Month, the editorial director of digital content at B&N.com, and a publishing outreach lead at Kickstarter.
Megan Greenwell is a narrative journalist who writes features and books about how systems affect people. She is a contributing writer at Bloomberg Businessweek and the author of the 2025 book Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream. Megan has written or edited for publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, ESPN, Deadspin, and WIRED. She is also the deputy director of the Princeton Summer Journalism Program, a residential workshop and college-access initiative for high school journalists from low-income backgrounds.
Amanda Hess is the author of the 2025 book Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age. She is a writer at large for The New York Times, and has served as the second vice president for the NewsGuild of New York, a union representing media workers. Her work has been published in Best American Magazine Writing and Best American Sports Writing and has won a National Magazine Award for Public Interest.
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Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 13.61 to USD 22.89
