All She Wrote Books Presents: Author Malavika Kannan
When:
Monday, Oct 26, 2026 6:30p -
8:00p
Monday, Oct 26, 2026 6:30p -
8:00p
Where:
All She Wrote Books
75 Washington Street
Somerville, Massachusetts 02143
Admission:
$21
Hosted by:
Categories:
Accessible Spots, Good for Groups, LGBTQ+, Meetup
Event website:
https://www.allshewrotebooks.com/events-1/aswb-presents-author-malavika-kannan
Join All She Wrote Books on Monday, October 26th at 6:30pm, as we welcome author Malavika Kannan to celebrate the release of her newest novel — Unprecedented Times! Unprecedented Times captures the beauty, humor, pain, and straight-up chaos that exist in relationships between best friends and lovers, mothers and daughters, and between storytellers and themselves. Malavika Kannan’s fresh, arresting novel is a testament to the power of self-narrative for Gen Z American women: of writing oneself into existence where no previous script exists.
This book launch event will include a reading and conversation between Malavika and author Laura van den Berg, an audience Q&A, and a signing by Malavika and Laura!
"Inclusivity" isn't just a buzzword to us. We make every effort to ensure our space and events are accessible to and for everyone. If you or someone in your party needs accommodations, please email us at [email protected].
About Unprecedented Times
Which comes first: experience or narrative? Rishi thinks she knows the answer as she arrives on campus for her first year at Stanford. A burnt-out youth climate activist, she used to want to save the world, but now she just wants to have gay sex. Her plan is set—she’s going to leave behind the strict trappings of her Indian American childhood in Florida, study literature, experiment with love, and write all about it. Within a few months, she makes her first best friend, falls in love with her situationship, and promptly gets her heart broken.
What is not a part of Rishi’s plan is the onset of the COVID pandemic. As the outside world becomes a terrifying place, she increasingly finds solace in the friendships she’s made. Instead of virtual college, however, Rishi and her classmates join a farm collective, where their political discussions and growing disillusionment collide with sexual tension and responsibility. It’s only when those relationships start fracturing under the stress of careless decisions, unrequited crushes, jealousies, and, yes, unprecedented times, that Rishi begins to question her own story.
About the Authors
Malavika Kannan (she/her) is a Tamil American writer whose work appears in The Nation, The Washington Post, New York, Teen Vogue, and elsewhere. Her villain origin story is that, as a teenager in Florida, she organized for generational movements such as March for Our Lives and the Women’s March. Her YA novel All the Yellow Suns was published in 2023. She graduated from Stanford University and now moonlights as a gay socialite in Brooklyn, where she co-hosts the popular mutual aid supper club Girls Eat Girls.
Laura van den Berg (she/her) was born and raised in Florida. She is the author of six works of fiction, most recently the novel State of Paradise. Her work has been supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Bard Fiction Prize, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her books have been twice shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. Laura teaches fiction and directs the creative writing program at Harvard University. Her next novel, Ring of Night, is forthcoming from FSG in 2027.
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