Story is the Thing

Looking to discover your new favorite author? Join us for our signature reading series, Story is the Thing, to hear four stellar Northern California fiction authors read from their latest titles.

Our guests are Claire Oshetsky for Evil Genius, an exuberant, brutally hilarious novel about a young woman’s insatiable quest to carve her own path—even if she needs to step over a few dead bodies along the way; award-winning author Kate Schatz with Where the Girls Were, her electrifying historical novel set in 1960s San Francisco; Parini Shroff for national bestseller and Good Morning America Buzz Pick The Bandit Queens; and Mike Trigg for Burner, an all-too plausible thriller examining the consequences of our technology-obsessed culture’s lost sense of identity, trust, and truth itself.

The Program

6:30 - Reception with the authors

7:00 - Readings, discussion, and Q&A

The Lineup

Claire Oshetsky is the author of Poor Deer and Chouette, which was a PEN/Faulkner Award nominee, the winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and a finalist for the Northern California Book Award and the Barbellion Prize. They live in Santa Cruz, California.

Kate Schatz is a feminist author from California. She’s the New York Times bestselling coauthor, with W. Kamau Bell, of Do the Work: An Anti-Racist Activity Book, and author of the Rad Women book series (including Rad American Women A–Z, Rad Women Worldwide, and Rad American History A–Z). Her book of fiction, Rid of Me: A Story, was published as part of the cult-favorite 33 1/3 series.

Parini Shroff is the bestselling author of The Bandit Queens, which was a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, a PEN Open Book finalist, and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. She received her MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a practicing attorney and currently lives in the Bay Area.

Mike Trigg was born in Kentucky, grew up in Wisconsin, and now lives in Portola Valley with his wife and two sons. He earned a BA from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to becoming an author, he was a founder, employee, and executive in the Silicon Valley technology industry for over twenty years. His first novel, Bit Flip, was released in 2022 to critical acclaim, lauded as a “twisty, acerbic corporate thriller” by the San Francisco Chronicle, “exceptionally well-written” by IndieReader, and “an engrossing novel” by Foreword. Trigg’s second novel, Burner, was praised as a “searing, all-too-believable novel” by BookLife Reviews and “a cautionary tale for the digital age” by IndieReader. Trigg’s work has been featured in Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, and Literary Hub. He has been a contributor to TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, and Fast Company, and regularly posts on his author site, www.miketrigg.com.

COVID SAFETY PROTOCOLS: We strongly encourage attendees to wear masks at our events, although they will NOT be required. We will have masks available for attendees who want them. Do NOT attend the event if you, or any member of your family, have any respiratory symptoms (e.g. cough, runny nose, and/or sore throat), or have had a significant exposure to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

ACCESSIBILITY: We never want cost to be a barrier to admission for our community. Please email events [at] keplers [dot] org if you would like to attend this event but cannot afford a ticket. To request an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for this event, please email events [at] keplers [dot] org at least one week prior to the event.

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