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  • Date: May 10
  • Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm PT

Ruth Joffre: Night Beast | Book Launch

“What pure pleasure to recommend to you the debut collection of Ruth Joffre, whose stories are nimble, audacious, and far seeing.” – Kelly Link

Ruth Joffre (who we are fortunate to have as a frequent Hugo House instructor) celebrates the launch of her debut book, Night Beast and Other Stories (Grove Atlantic/Black Cat). These doomed love stories and twisted fairytales explore the lives of women—particularly queer women and mothers—and reveal the monsters lurking in our daily lives: the madness, isolation, betrayals, and regrets that arise as we seek human connection.

Joffre will read selections from her book followed by a book signing. Books will be for sale from Elliott Bay Book Company.

Advance Praise for Night Beast:

“A fearless and startlingly talented writer… [ Ruth Joffre blends] the quiet horror of Mary Gaitskill and the reality-bending mischievousness of David Lynch and Kelly Link. You will leave this book gratefully unsettled.” — Benjamin Percy, author of The Dark Net, Thrill Me, Red Moon and The Dead Lands

“Ruth Joffre turns the lights on all around her characters yet still permits them their mystery, so that beneath their sharp lines and vivid colors one senses something considerably darker and more enigmatic. They face you not like constructions on a page but like people in the world.” — Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Illumination and The Brief History of the Dead


Ruth Joffre is the author of Night Beast and Other Stories. Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Kenyon Review, The Masters Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Mid-American Review, Nashville Review, Copper Nickel, DIAGRAM, The Offing, and SmokeLong Quarterly, among others, and her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner and Drunken Boat. Her nonfiction and criticism have appeared in The Millions, The Rumpus, Kenyon Review Online, Colorado Review, and The Establishment, among others. Born and raised in Northern Virginia, she graduated with honors from Cornell University and earned her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She lives in Seattle, where she teaches writing and literature at Hugo House.