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Saturday, April 22 • 11:30am - 12:30pm
You Can't Eat the Scenery

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Lisa Wells writes about the environment, but she wouldn’t call herself an environmental writer. Kate Lebo writes about food, but she wouldn’t call herself a food writer. What’s their problem, anyway? Genre can be claustrophobic and cheesy. From Montaigne to Didion, many of literature's most celebrated authors have defied genre distinctions by employing personal, political, investigative, philosophical modes and more. But genre also provides essential guidelines and guardrails to the writer’s task. Then there’s publishing to consider. If you want to pitch a book, you should expect to be asked “What kind of book is it?” Meaning: What shelf should it go on? In this discussion, Lisa (author of Believers) and Kate (author of The Book of Difficult Fruit) will celebrate and complain about the challenges and pleasures of genre—and explore how to write beyond it.

To attend this event, you must purchase a Book Fair & Events Pass which covers entry into our two-day Book Fair and all 17 events taking place at the Montvale Event Center. Tickets will go on sale Monday, March 20th at 8am.

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Authors
avatar for Kate Lebo

Kate Lebo

Kate Lebo’s first collection of essays, The Book of Difficult Fruit, is out now from Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Other recent work includes the chapbook Seven Prayers to Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Entre Rios Books) and the anthology Pie & Whiskey: Writers Under the Influence of Butter... Read More →
avatar for Lisa Wells

Lisa Wells

Lisa Wells is the author, most recently, of Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World, a finalist for the 2022 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Her debut collection of poetry, The Fix, won the Iowa Poetry Prize. Her work has been published in Harper’s Magazine... Read More →



Saturday April 22, 2023 11:30am - 12:30pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater 1019 W 1st Ave