George Saunders in conversation with Kate Sweeney - Liberation Day
Join us at the Garden Club at Wild Heaven West End for a special evening with Man Booker Prize-winning author George Saunders, in honor of his most recent short story collection, "Liberation Day." Saunders will appear in conversation with award-winning writer and podcast producer Kate Sweeney.
Tickets include a signed paperback edition of "Liberation Day." Purchase from Freshtix via the link below, or skip the service fees by buying your tickets at our store.
Please note: Although tickets are non-refundable, if you cannot attend, your ticket still entitles you to a signed copy of the book. A Cappella Books will hold your book for one month from the event date. You may pick it up in-store or call us to request shipping.
About the Book
The “best short-story writer in English” (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose—wickedly funny, unsentimental, and exquisitely tuned—Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: Here is a collection of prismatic, resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.
“Love Letter” is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the (not too distant, all too believable) future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and one another. “Ghoul” is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his reality. In “Mother’s Day,” two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. In “Elliott Spencer,” our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed, his memory “scraped”—a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters. And “My House”—in a mere seven pages—comes to terms with the haunting nature of unfulfilled dreams and the inevitability of decay.
Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.
About the Author
George Saunders is the author of nine books, including the novel "Lincoln in the Bardo," which won the Man Booker Prize, and the story collections "Pastoralia" and "Tenth of December," which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has received fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 2006 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2013 he was awarded the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and was included in Time’s list of the one hundred most influential people in the world. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.
About the Conversation Partner
Kate Sweeney is a writer and podcast producer living in Atlanta. Her book "American Afterlife" (University of Georgia Press) won a Georgia Author of the Year Award in 2015. Her writing has appeared in Full Grown People, Oxford American, Atlanta magazine, Utne Reader, New South, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among other places.
Kate produced the first season of the podcast "Buried Truths" for 90.1 WABE, which won Peabody and Robert F. Kennedy awards. She also hosted and produced four seasons of the What’s Next ATL podcast. As an NPR affiliate journalist for more than a decade, Kate created radio stories that appeared on "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered," "Weekend Edition," "The Third Coast Audio Festival," and "The World." Her other projects have included "Tantrum," a podcast and live literary event for parents, and "True Story," which was one of Atlanta’s first dedicated nonfiction reading series.
