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MONA AWAD reads from her new novel BUNNY with ANNA JOY SPRINGER

Bunny (Viking)

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn’t be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England’s Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort–a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other “Bunny,” and are often found entangled in a group hug so tight they become one. 

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies’ fabled “Smut Salon,” and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door–ditching her only friend, Ava, a caustic art school dropout, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the sinister yet saccharine world of the Bunny cult and starts to take part in their ritualistic off-campus “Workshop” where they magically conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur, and her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies are brought into deadly collision. 

A spellbinding, down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, creativity and agency, and friendship and desire, Bunny is the dazzlingly original second book from an author whose work has been described as “honest, searing and necessary” (Elle).

Praise for Bunny:

“A viciously funny bloodbath . . . Awad gleefully pumps up the novel’s nightmarish quality until the boundary between perception and reality has all but dissolved completely . . . Wickedly sharp . . . it’s a near-perfect realization of a singular vision.” —Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW 

“Outstanding . . . highly addictive, darkly comedic . . . Awad will have readers racing to find out how it all ends—and they won’t be disappointed once the story reaches its wild finale. This is an enchanting and stunningly bizarre novel.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW 

“[S]harp and utterly bonkers; think Heathers gone to grad school . . . fans of movies like Carrie, Heathers, and the like will rejoice.” —Booklist

“Mona Awad’s precision is only matched by her wit as she mounts one of the most pristine, delightful attacks on popular girls since Clueless. Bunny made me cackle and nod in terrified recognition. You will be glued to your cashmere blanket.” —Lena Dunham, author of Not That Kind of Girl

The Secret History meets Jennifer’s Body. I loved it.” —Kristen Roupenian, author of “Cat Person” and You Know You Want This 

“Hilarious and subversive, magical and knife-sharp: Bunny is a stunner.” —Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel

“I devoured Bunny—teeth, fur, claws and all. A truly delectable novel that is equal parts wit, fancy, and wickedness.” —Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, author of Miss Hempel Chronicles

Mona Awad is the author of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, which was awarded the Amazon First Novel Prize, the Colorado Book Award and was shortlisted for Giller Prize in Canada. Her writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, TIME, Electric Literature, Vice and elsewhere. She earned an MFA in Fiction from Brown University and a PhD in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Denver. She currently lives in Boston. 

Author Photo by Brigitte Lacombe

Anna Joy Springer is a cross-genre writer who investigates the weird intersections of sacredness, perversity, and interbeing. She is the author of The Vicious Red Relic, Love (Jaded Ibis, 2011), an illustrated fabulist memoir with soundscape (Your Metaforest Guidebook), and The Birdwisher, A Murder Mystery for Very Old Young Adults (Birds of Lace, 2009). Her work appears in zines, journals, anthologies, and recordings. An Associate Professor of Literature at UC San Diego, she teaches experimental writing, feminist literature & graphic texts with an emphasis on confrontation and contemplation. She’s performed in punk and queercore bands Blatz, The Gr’ups, and Cypher in the Snow and toured the U.S. with the writers of Sister Spit. She’s a sober buddhist middle aged white-presenting femme expunk from the Central Valley, living in Los Angeles.

Event date: 
Friday, June 21, 2019 - 7:30pm
Event address: 
1818 N Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl: Fiction By Mona Awad Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780143128489
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Penguin Books - February 23rd, 2016

The Vicious Red Relic, Love: A Fabulist Memoir By Anna Joy Springer (Illustrator), Anna Joy Springer Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781937543006
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Jaded Ibis Press - August 5th, 2011