Upcoming Virtual Interviews: August
August 01, 2022
We’re thrilled to bring you even more free virtual author interviews in August!
AUGUST 22, 12pm CST | TANIA KATAN, author of Creative Trespassing: How to Put the Spark and Joy Back Into Your Work and Life
in conversation with Porchlight’s Creative Director Gabriella Cisneros
* Winner of the 2019 Porchlight Business Book Awards Innovation & Creativity book of the year *
Whether you're an entrepreneur seeking new ways to innovate, a newbie trying to spice up routine entry-level work, a free spirit with a rich creative life outside the office looking to bring more of that magic into your job, or just someone who occasionally feels the urge to scream “Why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam?!!,” Katan will show you how to transform monotony into novelty and become more energized in your work and in the world.
Peppered with stories of her own shenanigans—from organizing a wrestling match in the middle of an art museum to staging a corporate culture intervention via post-its—and lessons from the rule-breaking exploits of artists, change-makers, and totally legit business leaders alike, this book is a rollicking, uninhibited guide to using creativity as fuel for a freer and more joyful life.
Order a copy of Creative Trespassing from your local bookstore or bookshop.org
TANIA KATAN is an inspirational speaker, speaking coach, and creative consultant who believes in storytelling at all costs! She has been a featured speaker at CiscoLive!, S.H.E. Summit, Landmark Ventures Social Innovation Summit, CreativeMornings, Comedy Central Stage, TEDx, and more. And her productive disruptions have been covered by the New York Times, USA Today, HuffPost, Glamour, Time, ReadWrite, Adweek, BuzzFeed, Mashable, USA Today, CNN, and more. Katan's B.A. in theater has turned out to be more lucrative than any disparaging academic adviser could have imagined!
AUGUST 28, 6pm CST | ELVIA WILK, author of Death by Landscape: Essays
in conversation with Porchlight’s Managing Director Sally Haldorson
In this constellation of essays–Death by Landscape–Elvia Wilk asks what kinds of narratives will help us rethink our human perspective toward Earth. The book begins as an exploration of the role of fiction today and becomes a deep interrogation of the writing process and the self.
What happens when research becomes personal, when the observer breaks through the glass? Through the eye of the fan, this collection delves into literal and literary world-building projects—medieval monasteries, solarpunk futures, vampire role plays, environments devoid of humans—bridging the micro and the macro and revealing how our relationship to narrative shapes our relationships to the natural world and to one another.
Purchase a copy of Death by Landscape from our event partners, Boswell Book Company
ELVIA WILK is a writer and editor living in New York. Her first novel, Oval, was published in June 2019 by Soft Skull press, and a book of essays called Death By Landscape is forthcoming in 2022. She is the recipient of a 2019 Andy Warhol Arts Writers grant and a 2020 fellowship at the Berggruen Institute. From 2012 to 2016 she was a founding editor at uncube magazine, and from 2016 to 2018 she was the publications editor for transmediale and a contributing editor at Rhizome. Currently, she's a contributing editor at e-flux journal and teaches at places including the University of the Arts Berlin, Eugene Lang College, and City College of New York.
AUGUST 31, 1pm CST | MIA MERCADO, author of She’s Nice Though: Essays on Being Bad at Being Good
in conversation with Porchlight's Creative Director Gabriella Cisneros and Porchlight’s Digital Operations Manager Lauren Kohlenberg.
Everyone knows Midwesterners are salt-of-the-earth folk defined by their goodness, niceness, and politeness . . . right?. In this funny, wide-ranging collection, Mia Mercado ponders her identity as an Asian woman living in the Midwest, including what “nice” means—and why anyone would want to be it. Drawing on a wide range of subjects, including her body, her dog, trash reality television, bizarre Tweets from strangers, and her high school science teacher, she uncovers weird, long-overdue truths about ourselves, our frailty, and our failings—seeing them not as a source of shame but a cause for celebration.
She’s Nice Though offers a mind-bending glimpse into our misperceptions and misconceptions as humans, as viewed by a razor-sharp cultural critic, hilarious millennial content queen, and expert essayist with a unique voice and a gift for detail. Like Jia Tolentino's Trick Mirror, Michelle Zauner's Crying in H-Mart, and Samantha Irby’s Wow No Thank You, Mia’s humorous myth-busting second book reflects the illusions and delusions of contemporary life—and who we really are.
Order a copy of She's Nice Though from your local bookstore or bookshop.org
MIA MERCADO is the author of Weird But Normal and currently the morning blogger for The Cut. Her work has also been featured in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Washington Post’s The Lily, Bustle, McSweeney’s, Reductress, Bust, the American Bystander, Gizmodo, and The Hairpin, and other media outlets. She lives in Kansas City, Kansas.
About the Authors
