Stacey Lee with Stephanie Garber

Join us to celebrate the launch of Stacey Lee’s powerful, compelling, and critically acclaimed new novel, The Downstairs Girl, about family, community, and the importance of writing your own history.

*”Though society may try to push aside those it sees as different, Jo demonstrates that everyone has a place and a story to be told. Unflinching in its portrayals of racism yet ultimately hopeful and heartfelt, this narrative places voices frequently left out of historical fiction center stage.” —School Library Journal, starred review

By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady’s maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, “Dear Miss Sweetie.” When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society’s ills, but she’s not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender. While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta’s most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she is ready to step into the light.

Stacey Lee is the author of Under a Painted Sky, Outrun the Moon, and Secret of a Heart Note and is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books. Stephanie Garber, author of Caraval, Legendary, and Finale, will be joining Stacey on stage.