- This event has passed.
BINDERY: Kristen Roupenian / You Know You Want This: Cat Person and Other Stories
January 24, 2019 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm UTC+0
The Bindery hosts “Cat Person” author Kristen Roupenian for her debut story collection, You Know You Want This. Please join us!
You Know You Want This brilliantly explores the ways in which women are horrifying as much as it captures the horrors that are done to them. Among its pages are a couple who becomes obsessed with their friend hearing them have sex, then seeing them have sex… until they can’t have sex without him; a ten-year-old whose birthday party takes a sinister turn when she wishes for “something mean”; a woman who finds a book of spells half hidden at the library and summons her heart’s desire: a nameless, naked man; and a self-proclaimed “biter” who dreams of sneaking up behind and sinking her teeth into a green-eyed, long-haired, pink-cheeked coworker.
Spanning a range of genres and topics — from the mundane to the murderous and supernatural — these are stories about sex and punishment, guilt and anger, the pleasure and terror of inflicting and experiencing pain. These stories fascinate and repel, revolt and arouse, scare and delight in equal measure. And, as a collection, they point a finger at you, daring you to feel uncomfortable–or worse, understood–as if to say, “You want this, right? You know you want this.”
Kristen Roupenian graduated from Barnard College and holds a PhD in English from Harvard, as well as an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. She’s the author of the short story “Cat Person”, published in The New Yorker and selected by Sheila Heti for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018. She is currently at work on a novel. Photo by Elisa Roupenian Toha.
Please note: this event will be held at The Bindery, 1727 Haight.
This is an all ages event with mature themes. The bar opens at 7pm; event starts at 7:30pm.
As with all of our events, seating may be limited; you can guarantee a seat by pre-purchasing the book below — when checking out, just be sure to include a note that you’d like to attend the event. If you cannot attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of You Know You Want This, order below and put your request in the comments field.