We welcome Samantha Irby to present and discuss her book Quietly Hostile. She'll be joined in conversation by author Megan Stielstra.
About the Book: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A GLAMOUR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - A hilarious new essay collection from Samantha Irby "engages readers with her characteristic combination of laugh-out-loud moments, heartfelt passages and plenty of awkward experiences.... Quietly Hostile will delight established fans and newcomers alike (Parade).
"Brilliant and one of the funniest people I've ever read." --Roxane Gay
"Absolutely hilarious.... If you are feeling down, or you feel like you haven't read anything you've loved in a long time, all you need is Samantha Irby.... She will make you laugh on every page." --Emma Straub, bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow, on The Today Show
Samantha Irby's career has taken her to new heights. She dodges calls from Hollywood and flop sweats on the red carpet at premieres (well, one premiere). But nothing is ever as it seems online, where she can crop out all the ugly parts.
Irby got a lot of weird emails about Carrie Bradshaw, and not only is there diarrhea to avoid, but now--anaphylactic shock. She is turned away from restaurants for being inappropriately dressed and looks for the best ways to cope, i.e., reveling in the offerings of QVC and adopting a deranged pandemic dog. Quietly Hostile makes light as Irby takes us on another outrageously funny tour of all the gory details that make up the true portrait of a life behind the screenshotted depression memes. Relatable, poignant, and uproarious, once again, Irby is the tonic we all need to get by.
SAMANTHA IRBY is a writer whose work you can find on the internet.
MEGAN STIELSTRA is the author of The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, winner of the 2017 Book of the Year Award from the Chicago Review of Books, as well as Everyone Remain Calm and Once I Was Cool (both reissued by Northwestern University Press). Her work has appeared in The Best American Essays 2013, the New York Times, The Believer, Poets & Writers, Longreads, Tin House, and elsewhere. A longtime company member with 2nd Story, she has told stories for National Public Radio, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Goodman Theatre, and with The Paper Machete live news magazine at the Green Mill. She teaches creative nonfiction at Northwestern University and is a mentor editor with the OpEd Project supporting women's voices in public discourse.
