Looking to discover your new favorite author? Join us for our signature reading series, Story is the Thing, to hear five stellar Northern California fiction authors read from their debut and latest titles. Plus, take 20% off the list price of any of the featured titles.
Our guests are Kyle Edwards for his poignant and heart-wrenching coming-of-age story, Small Ceremonies; former Stegner Fellow Kate Folk reading from her brilliantly bizarre debut novel, Sky Daddy; Beena Kamlani with hertransporting debut novel, The English Problem; Kirsten Menger-Anderson reading from her brilliantly plotted work of historical fiction, The Expert of Subtle Revisions; and J. E. Weiner with her searing Southern Gothic ghost story, The Wretched and Undone.
The Program
6:30 - Reception with the authors
7:00 - Readings, discussion, and Q&A
The Lineup
Kyle Edwards grew up on the Lake Manitoba First Nation and is a member of the Ebb and Flow First Nation. A graduate of Ryerson University, he has worked as a journalist for Native News Online, ProPublica, and Maclean’s, and has held fellowships at Harvard and Stanford Universities. He has won two National Magazine Awards for his reporting and was named Emerging Indigenous Journalist by the Canadian Association of Journalists in 2019. He is currently a Provost Fellow at the University of Southern California.
Kate Folk is the author of the novel Sky Daddy and the short story collection Out There. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, n+1, the New York Times, Granta, and The Baffler, among other venues. A former Stegner Fellow, she’s also received fellowships and residencies from MacDowell, the Headlands Center for the Arts, and Willapa Bay AiR. She lives in San Francisco.
Beena Kamlani is a Pushcart Prize-winning fiction writer whose work has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review; Ploughshares; Identity Lessons: Learning to Be American, eds. Gillan (1999); Growing Up Ethnic in America, eds. Gillan (2000); The Lifted Brow (2008); World Literature Today; and other publications. She has been awarded fellowships at Yaddo, MacDowell, Ledig House/Writers Omi, Hawthornden Castle, Jentel Arts, and Hedgebrook. A former senior editor for the Penguin Group, she taught book editing at New York University for nearly two decades and was presented an award for teaching excellence. The English Problem is her first novel.
Kirsten Menger-Anderson is the author of Doctor Olaf van Schuler’s Brain, a collection of short stories that was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award in fiction and one of Time Out Chicago’s top ten books of the year. Her stories and essays have appeared in publications including Ploughshares, the Southwest Review, LitHub, and Undark. She currently lives in San Francisco with her family. The Expert of Subtle Revisions is her debut novel.
J. E. Weiner is a writer and novelist based in Northern California. Her debut novel, The Wretched and Undone, a searing Southern Gothic tale set in the Texas Hill Country and inspired by real people and actual events, is forthcoming from History Through Fiction on March 18, 2025. The book manuscript was named a Killer Nashville Top Pick for 2024 and a Claymore Award Finalist for Best Southern Gothic. Weiner’s previous work has appeared in the literary journals Madcap Review, Five Minutes, HerStry, and Chicago Story Press, as well as the recent grit lit anthology Red-Headed Writing(Cowboy Jamboree Press, 2024). Weiner is a founding member of the Pacific Coast Writers Collective, and while living and writing in blissful exile on the West Coast, her heart remains bound to her childhood home, the Great State of Texas.
COVID SAFETY PROTOCOLS: We strongly encourage attendees to wear masks at our events, although they will NOT be required. We will have masks available for attendees who want them. Do NOT attend the event if you, or any member of your family, have any respiratory symptoms (e.g. cough, runny nose, and/or sore throat), or have had a significant exposure to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. We have virtual options available, or we can refund your ticket(s).
ACCESSIBILITY: To request an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for this event, please email events [at] keplers [dot] org at least one week prior to the event.