Trans Open Mic + Author Talk with Jeanne Thornton | Busboys and Poets Books

It’s a difficult time for trans people in the USA, and Jeanne would like to extend the opportunity to local trans fiction writers to build community by coming on stage and sharing their work as part of an opening “open mic” to this event. There are spaces for up to 6-8 readers to share work of up to 5 minutes each.

If you are interested in reading, please select the “Open Mic Ticket” and find Jeanne before the show at 4:30 PM. The reading will be arranged on a first come, first served basis on the night of the event.

A/S/L by Jeanne Thornton

A/S/L is a transformational, transformative story about video games, three queer friends, and the code(s) they learn to survive, from the winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Trans Fiction.

1998: Lilith, Sash, and Abraxa are teenagers, scattered across the country but joined by the Internet as they create Saga of the Sorceress, a video game that will change everything, if only for the three of them.

Eighteen years later, Saga of the Sorceress still exists only on the scattered drives of its creators. Lilith works as a loan underwriter at a rinky-dink bank in Manhattan, a trans woman in a very cis world. Sash is in Brooklyn, working as a part-time webcam dominatrix. Neither knows that the other is in New York, or that Abraxa is just across the Hudson River, sleeping on the floor of a friend's Jersey City home after a disaster at sea. They have never met in person and have been out of touch for years, but none have forgotten the sorceress or her unfinished quest.

Weaving together the technologies of two decades, and a healthy dose of magic, A/S/L is a novel that queers our notions of nostalgia, friendship, and even the possibilities of fiction itself, confirming Jeanne Thornton as one of our best and most ambitious novelists.

Jeanne Thornton is joining us on the Busboys stage to share more about this “dazzlingly creative and heartfelt novel” (Kirkus Reviews). Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Thronton will be signing following the program.

This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 5:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of A/S/L will be available for purchase before and after] the event. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed.

We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books

Jeanne Thornton is the author of Summer Fun, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction and finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction, as well as The Black Emerald and The Dream of Doctor Bantam. Her fiction has appeared in n+1, WIRED, Evergreen Review, and other places. She is an editor at Feminist Press, as well as copublisher of Instar Books and coeditor of the Ignatz Award-winning We're Still Here: An All-Trans Comics Anthology. She lives in Brooklyn, and more information is available at jeannethornton.com.

Host or Publisher Busboys and Poets