Laura Adamczyk

presents

Hardly Children:
Stories

in conversation with CHAYA BHUVANESWAR

This event includes a book signing

Date

Jan
11
Friday
January 11, 2019
7:00 PM ET

Location

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

This event is free; no tickets are required.

Harvard Book Store and GrubStreet welcome award-winning writer LAURA ADAMCZYK for a discussion of her debut short story collection, Hardly Children. She will be joined in conversation by the prize-winning author of White Dancing Elephants, CHAYA BHUVANESWAR.

About Hardly Children

A man hangs from the ceiling of an art gallery. A woman spells out messages to her sister using her own hair. Children deemed “bad” are stolen from their homes. In Hardly Children, Laura Adamczyk’s rich and eccentric debut collection, familiar worlds―bars, hotel rooms, cities that could very well be our own―hum with uncanny dread.

The characters in Hardly Children are keyed up, on the verge, full of desire. They’re lost, they’re in love with someone they shouldn’t be, they’re denying uncomfortable truths using sex or humor. They are children waking up to the threats of adulthood, and adults living with childlike abandon.

With command, caution, and subtle terror, Adamczyk shapes a world where death and the possibility of loss always emerge. Yet the shape of this loss is never fully revealed. Instead, it looms in the periphery of these stories, like an uncomfortable scene viewed out of the corner of one’s eye.

Praise

"The stories are achingly open to the vulnerability that comes with forming attachments and the surprising difficulty of breaking them." —Danielle Lazarin, New York Times Book Review

"A striking blend of graceful sentences and eerie premises." ―Laura Pearson, Chicago Tribune

"Super weird, super unsettling, and super great." —Boston Globe

“With an elegant, surgical style, this excellent debut collection examines the murky divide between youth and adulthood, the infinite weirdnesses of aging, the way our childhoods warp in the rear view, and the myriad lies we must undo along the way. Laura Adamczyk is a clever, observant writer with a pleasantly dark wit and Hardly Children will thrill any reader who is baffled to realize they’re an adult.” ―Catherine Lacey, author of Certain American States and The Answers

Chaya Bhuvaneswar
Chaya Bhuvaneswar

Chaya Bhuvaneswar

Chaya Bhuvaneswar is a South Asian-American psychiatrist, poet, award winning fiction writer and essayist. Chaya’s debut short story collection, White Dancing Elephants, received several honors and awards, including Finalist for the 2019 PEN American/Robert W. Bingham Debut Fiction Prize. Her short fiction has also been anthologized in Her Mother’s Ashes 2 (TSAR Press) and Best Small Fictions (Sundress Press) in 2019.

Laura Adamczyk
Laura Adamczyk

Laura Adamczyk

Laura Adamczyk lives in Chicago. Her fiction has won awards from the Union League Civic & Arts Foundation of Chicago and has appeared in McSweeney’s, Guernica, Hobart, Chicago Reader, Salt Hill, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and other publications. Hardly Children is her first book.

Photo Credit: Amanda Goldblatt

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes

As you exit the station, reverse your direction and walk east along Mass. Ave. in front of the Cambridge Savings Bank. Cross Dunster St. and proceed along Mass. Ave for three more blocks. You will pass Au Bon Pain, JP Licks, and TD Bank. Harvard Book Store is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St.

Unable to attend a Harvard Book Store author event? You can still pre-order a signed book by one of our visiting authors.

While we can't guarantee fulfillment of a signed book pre-order, our authors are almost always able to sign extra books to fulfill such orders.

Ordering a signed book on harvard.com:

  • Add the book to your shopping cart and then click Checkout.
  • Specify in Order Comments that you want a signed copy of the book.
  • Please note: online orders for signed copies must be placed at least one business day before the event. If you are ordering the day of, please call us instead.

Ordering a signed book by phone:

  • Call us at (617) 661-1515 and one of our booksellers will take your order. Specify you'd like a signed copy.
  • If you are requesting a personalized inscription and/or requesting your book be shipped, we'll need to take down credit card information. If you are planning to pick up the signed book in the store, you can pay on pick-up.

FAQ:

Can I request a personalized inscription?
Unless otherwise noted, we are happy to take requests for the author to sign your book to a specific person, but we can't guarantee it. If you do get a personalized inscription, the book will be non-returnable. We will require credit card information when you place the order.

Do signed books cost more?
There is no extra fee for a signed book!

Do I have to pick it up in the store, or can you deliver my signed book?
As with all web or phone orders, we can hold your book for in-store pickup, or ship it anywhere in the country.

I am planning to attend an author event. Do I need to pre-order a book?
No need. We'll be selling books at the event, and nearly all of our events include a signing at the end of the talk.

More questions? Give us a call!

Event Series: New Voices in Fiction

Harvard Book Store's New Voices in Fiction series, presented with GrubStreet, highlights debut fiction writers discussing their work and the writing process.

GrubStreet is one of the nation's leading creative writing centers, offering 500+ classes a year in all genres, for writers of all levels. We believe that narrative transforms lives, builds bridges, and produces empathy. By rigorously developing voices of every type and talent and by removing barriers to entry, GrubStreet fosters the creation of meaningful stories and ensures that excellent writing remains vital and relevant. To learn more or find a class, visit grubstreet.org.

Purchase the Book
Featured event books will be for sale at the event. Thank you for supporting this author series with your purchases.
General Info
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