Tom McAllister: IT ALL FELT IMPOSSIBLE (with Susan Muaddi Darraj)

Tom McAllister's memoir-in-essays It All Felt Impossible employs an exciting and thoughtful form: 1 short essay for every year he’s been alive. With each piece strictly limited to a maximum of 1,500 words, these 42 essays move fluidly through time, taking poetic leaps and ending up in places we can't expect-- a monorail crash at a zoo, a tornado, playing youth sports for tyrannical coaches, grieving for dead parents, learning how to ride a bike as an adult, working long shifts making cheesesteaks, and more. Each annual offering is a search for meaning and connection, chronicled by an engaging and honest voice.

We're thrilled that beloved Baltimore-based author Susan Muaddi Darraj will join McAllister in conversation, and we hope you can join us.

Link to purchase It All Felt Impossible to come!

Tom McAllister is the author of the novel How to Be Safe, which was named one of the best books of 2018 by Kirkus and The Washington Post. His other books are the novel The Young Widower’s Handbook and the memoir Bury Me in My Jersey. His short stories and essays have been published in The Sun, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Black Warrior Review, and many other places. He is the nonfiction editor at Barrelhouse and co-hosts the Book Fight! podcast with Mike Ingram. He lives in New Jersey and teaches in the MFA Program at Rutgers-Camden. Visit his website at tom.mcallister.ws.

Susan Muaddi Darraj is an award-winning writer of books for adults and children. She won an American Book Award, two Arab American Book Awards, and a Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artists Award. In 2018, she was named a USA Artists Ford Fellow. Her books include her linked short story collection, A Curious Land, as well as the children’s book series. She lives in Baltimore, where she teaches creative writing at Harford Community College and the Johns Hopkins University. Her new novel, BEHIND YOU IS THE SEA, was published in January 2024 by HarperVia. It received praise from The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Ms Magazine, and it was named a Best Book of 2024 by The New Yorker and Apple Books. Behind You Is the Sea was also longlisted for the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award.

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