September 11, 2020

Vanessa Veselka

Harvard Book Store's virtual event series welcomes acclaimed novelist and essayist VANESSA VESELKA—author of the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize–winning novel Zazen—for a discussion of her latest novel, The Great Offshore Grounds. She will be joined in conversation by acclaimed writer CARA HOFFMAN, author of the celebrated novels So Much Pretty, Be Safe I Love You, and Running.

Details

On the day of their estranged father's wedding, half sisters Cheyenne and Livy set off to claim their inheritance. It's been years since the two have seen each other. Cheyenne is newly back in Seattle, crashing with Livy after a failed marriage and a series of dead ends. Livy works refinishing boats, her resentment against her freeloading sister growing as she tamps down dreams of fishing off the coast of Alaska. But the promise of a shot at financial security brings the two together to claim what's theirs. Except, instead of money, what their father gives them is information—a name—which both reveals a stunning family secret and compels them to come to grips with it. In the face of their new reality, the sisters and their adopted brother each set out on journeys that will test their faith in one another, as well as their definitions of freedom.

Moving from Seattle's underground to the docks of the Far North, from the hideaways of the southern swamps to the storied reaches of the Great Offshore Grounds, Vanessa Veselka spins a tale with boundless verve, linguistic vitality, and undeniable tenderness.

About Author(s)

Vanessa Veselka is the author of the novel Zazen, which won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. Her short stories have appeared in Tin House and ZYZZYVA, and her nonfiction in GQThe AtlanticSmithsonianThe Atavist, and was included in Best American Essays and the anthology Bitchfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism. She has been, at various times, a teenage runaway, a sex worker, a union organizer, an independent record label owner, a train hopper, a waitress, and a mother. She lives in Portland, OR.

Cara Hoffman is the author of Running, a New York Times Editor's Choice, an Esquire Magazine Best Book of 2017, and an Autostraddle Best Queer and Feminist Book of 2017. Her first novel, So Much Pretty, sparked a national dialogue on violence and retribution and was named Best Suspense Novel of the year by the New York Times Book Review. Her second novel, Be Safe I Love You, was nominated for a Folio Prize, named one of the Five Best Modern War Novels by the Telegraph UK. Her essays have appeared in the New York TimesThe Paris ReviewBookforumRolling Stone, Salon and NPR.