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Michelle Hart: We Do What We Do in the Dark

  • Solid State Books 600 H Street Northeast Washington, DC, 20002 United States (map)

Tune in to hear Michelle Hart discuss her new book We Do What We Do in the Dark! This is a VIRTUAL EVENT please register in advance here

A novel about a young woman’s life-altering affair with a much older, married woman.

Mallory is a freshman in college, reeling from her mother’s recent death, when she encounters the woman. She sees her for the first time at the university’s gym, immediately entranced. Soon, they meet, drawn by an electric tension and shared past wounds; before long, they begin sleeping together in secret. Self-possessed, successful, brilliant, and aloof—the woman is everything Mallory wants…and wants to be. Desiring not only the woman but also the idea of who she is when they’re together, Mallory retreats from the rest of the world, solidifying a sense of aloneness that has both haunted and soothed her since childhood and will continue to do so for years even after the affair ends. As an adult, Mallory must decide whether to stay safely in isolation or step fully into the world, to confront what the woman meant to her and how their relationship shaped her, for better or worse.

Mallory’s life is transformed by loss and by love and by discovering who she is while enduring both. In this enthralling debut novel, the complexities of influence, obsession, and admiration reveal how desire and its consequences can alter the trajectory of someone’s life.

About the Author:

Michelle Hart’s fiction has appeared in Joyland and Electric Literature, and she has written nonfiction for CatapultNYLONThe Rumpus, and The New Yorker online. Previously, she was the Assistant Books Editor at O, the Oprah Magazine and Oprah Daily. She received her MFA from Rutgers-Newark and lives in New Jersey.

 About the Moderator:

Kristen Arnett is the author of the New York Times–bestselling novel Mostly Dead Things and the story collection Felt in the Jaw. A queer writer based in Florida, she has written for The New York TimesGuernicaBuzzFeedMcSweeney’sThe GuardianSalon, and elsewhere. She has been a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and a winner of the Ninth Letter Literary Award in Fiction and the Coil Book Award.