Join us on Monday, July 10th at 7 pm when Jenny Xie celebrates the release of her debut novel, Holding Pattern, with Shruti Swamy! Presented in partnership with The Ruby and Green Apple Books.
Xie will be joined in conversation by author Shruti Swamy (The Archer, A House is a Body), followed by an audience Q+A, book signing, snacks, and mingling!
Proof of vaccination is required. Masks are encouraged.
Doors: 6:30 pm
Event Start: 7:00 pm
Location: The Ruby, SF Mission District (please see FAQ for details about our venue)
This event is free to attend, but RSVP is required.
Copies of the authors’ books will be available for purchase at the event.
Please see our FAQ below for further details.
About Holding Pattern
A NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION “5 UNDER 35” HONOREE
“There is so much heart in these pages, so much wisdom on how we love. This book had me in its orbit, from beginning to end.” – Weike Wang, author of Joan is Okay
Holding Pattern. Noun.
1. A state of suspended progress.
2. The awkward way your mother tries to hug you now that you live with her. Again.
Kathleen Cheng has blown up her life. She’s gone through a humiliating breakup, dropped out of her graduate program, and left everything behind. Now she’s back in her childhood home in Oakland, wondering what’s next.
To her surprise, her mother isn’t the same person Kathleen remembers. No longer depressed or desperate to return to China, the new Marissa Cheng is sporty, perky, and has been transformed by love. Kathleen thought she’d be planning her own wedding, but instead finds herself helping her mother plan hers—to a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur.
Grasping for direction, Kathleen takes a job at a start-up that specializes in an unconventional form of therapy based on touch. While she negotiates new ideas about intimacy and connection, an unforeseen attachment to someone at work pushes her to rethink her relationships—especially the one with Marissa. Will they succeed in seeing each other anew, adult to adult?
As they peel back the layers of their history—the old wounds, cultural barriers, and complex affection—they must come to a new understanding of how they can propel each other forward, and what they’ve done to hold each other back. Brilliantly observant, tender, and warm, Holding Pattern is a hopeful novel about immigration and belonging, mother-daughter relationships, and the many ways we learn to hold each other.
About Jenny Xie
Jenny Xie is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn. Originally from Shanghai, she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her MFA at Johns Hopkins University. Her work has appeared in AGNI, Ninth Letter, Joyland, Narrative, and the Best of the Net Anthology. Jenny is the recipient of a Bread Loaf scholarship and fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Loghaven. She is a contributing writer for Architectural Digest, Apartment Therapy, and Dwell, where she was the executive editor.
About Shruti Swamy
Shruti Swamy is the author of the story collection A House Is a Body, and a novel, The Archer. She is the recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Council, and Vassar College. She is a Kundiman Fiction Fellow, and lives in San Francisco.
FAQs
This event will take place at The Ruby in San Francisco's Mission District. The Ruby is a collective of women and nonbinary people, and for the safety of its members their address is not public. Attendees will be sent the address in reminder email two days before the event and on event date. Please do not share this address with anyone who is not attending the event.
Seating will be first come, first serve.
The livestream of this event will be available on Green Apple Books’ YouTube page after the event.
Accessibility
The entrance to this event is at street-level, with no stairs leading into or out of the venue.
There is only street parking available outside of the venue. Public transportation is encouraged.