Join Blue Stoop and The Head & the Hand Books on Zoom for…
A CELEBRATION OF 2025 PHILLY BOOKS!
By our count, there are 46 conventionally published titles by Philly or Philly-connected authors coming out in winter, spring, and summer 2025, and we think that’s worthy of celebration. Come hear the authors of 9 of them, from celebrated literary novelists and poets to buzzy romance writers and innovative young adult and children’s writers, read and discuss their recent and forthcoming books. Attendees will also receive a downloadable PDF guide to the details of all 46 titles. All are welcome; this is a night of literary toasting and camaraderie not to be missed!
To attend, please donate to Blue Stoop's winter fundraiser at any level, and you will receive a link to register. All $$ raised benefits Blue Stoop, Philadelphia’s nonprofit home for writers. Booksellers and bookish media/influencers: please email info@bluestoop.org to receive your free registration link.
Featured readers:
J.B. Hwang received her MFA in Fiction from the University of Florida, and her short fiction and translation can be found in The Temz Review, The Denver Quarterly, Oxford Magazine, and december magazine. She lived in San Francisco for eight years and worked as a mail carrier during the pandemic. She currently lives in Philadelphia.
Kayleb Rae Candrilli is the recipient of a Whiting Award, a PEW fellowship, and of a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts. They are the author of Winter of Worship, Water I Won’t Touch, All the Gay Saints, and What Runs Over. Candrilli lives in Philadelphia with their partner.
Sophie Lewis is an ex-academic queer feminist living in Philadelphia with several of her kin, including Barnacle the cat. Besides Enemy Feminisms, Sophie's published books include Abolish the Family and Full Surrogacy Now, both of which have been translated into many languages. You can support Sophie's writing at patreon.com/reproutopia and find her essays everywhere from the New York Times to the London Review of Books.
Tre Johnson is a freelance writer and critic on race and culture whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, New York Times, Vox, San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post and several other outlets. His first book, the nonfiction work, ‘BLACK GENIUS: Our Celebrations and our Destructions’, will be published by Dutton Books at Penguin Random House Summer 2025. Originally from Trenton, NJ, he is based in Philadelphia, PA.
Julia Drake’s debut novel The Last True Poets of the Sea was published in 2019 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and received the 2020 New England Book Award, six starred reviews, and was named a 2019 Best Book of the Year by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist, among other publications. Her short fiction has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Esopus, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and her second young adult novel, Lovesick Falls, is forthcoming from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in June 2025. She holds an MFA from Columbia University, and occasionally moonlights as a professor of creative and academic writing. She lives and works in Philadelphia with her partner and their rescue rabbit, Ned.
Weike Wang is the author of CHEMISTRY (Knopf 2017), JOAN IS OKAY (Random House 2022) and RENTAL HOUSE (Riverhead 2024). She is the recipient of a Pen Hemingway, a Whiting award and a National Book Foundation 5 under 35. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Best American Short Stories and has won an O. Henry Prize. She earned her MFA from Boston University and her other degrees from Harvard. She currently lives in New York City and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and Barnard College.
Sawyer Lovett is a writer who lives in Tazewell County, VA by way of Philadelphia. He is a writer and professor, a dog dad, an occasional bookseller, barista, and balloon artist who makes zines, mistakes, and messes frequently and enthusiastically. Shampoo Unicorn is his first book.
Laura Piper Lee has wanted to be an author since she was a kid. Well, first she wanted to be a mermaid, but that didn't work out. She enjoys making people laugh, flirting, and avoiding exercise, so writing romantic comedies is pretty much a perfect career choice. Elle Magazine named her debut novel Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair a Best Romance of 2024, and her second novel, Zoe Brennan, First Crush releases January 21, 2025.
Kim Kelly is a labor reporter for In These Times Magazine and has been a regular labor columnist forTeen Vogue since 2018. Her writing on labor, class, politics, disability, and culture has appeared in The Nation, Rolling Stone, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Baffler, and Esquire, among many others. Kelly has also worked as a video correspondent for More Perfect Union, The Real News Network, and Means TV. Her first book, FIGHT LIKE HELL: The Untold History of American Labor, was published by Atria/One Signal in 2022, and the young readers’ edition, Fight to Win: Heroes of American Labor, will be published by Simon & Schuster Kids in May 2025 (preorder it here!). She was born in the heart of the South Jersey Pine Barrens, and currently lives in Philadelphia with a hard-workin’ man, a couple of taxidermied bears, and way too many books.