September 17, 2025

Soon, soon, soon

Hello, readers—

You ever say a word so many times, either aloud or in your thoughts, that it starts to sound ridiculous, like it can’t possibly mean what you think it means?

Sometimes that’s what having written a book can feel like. Tens of thousands of words that you’ve looked at so many times, heard in your head and felt in your body so many times, that they start to sound ridiculous in the aggregate, like they can’t possibly mean what you’d hoped they would.

And then, if you’re really lucky—and I am—you have readers. Readers who remind you that you actually did communicate all or at least some of what you’d been hoping to, and who confirm that what you’ve wrought with words actually exists and is coherent.

It’s a gift, being able to share some version of your internal imagined landscape with other people.

Beings comes out next week, on Tuesday, September 23. My launch at Skylight is on Wednesday, September 24. I finally updated my website so it includes my event dates. I’ve also pasted them below again—and I so hope to see some of you there.

Thank you, as always, for being here.

Yours, etc.,

Ilana

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Beings book tour

Wednesday, September 24/ Los Angeles, CA / Skylight Books
Beings book launch with Gabrielle Korn
(RSVP encouraged)

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Monday, September 29 / Philadelphia, PA / Head House Books
In conversation with Emma Copley Eisenberg
(Tickets required)

👽

Tuesday, September 30 / Washington, DC / Loyalty Bookstore
(The DC Pop Up at Walter Reed, 1155 Dahlia St NW)
In conversation with Amber Sparks
(RSVP encouraged)

👽

Wednesday, October 1 / New York, NY / The Strand Bookstore
In conversation with Maris Kreizman
(Tickets required)

👽

Thursday, October 2 / Providence, RI / Riffraff Bookstore and Bar
Reading with JD Scott and Samantha Tano

👽

Friday, October 3 / Cambridge, MA / Porter Square Books
Presented in partnership with The History Project, Boston’s own LGBTQ archive
(RSVP encouraged)

👽

Thursday, October 9, 2pm / Bronxville, NY / Sarah Lawrence College
Craft talk: “Voices from the (Not Quite) Void”
In this craft talk, I'll discuss how I found the various voices and tones in my new novel, Beings, and more broadly talk about how we shape voices in fiction, how we can utilize not only language and sound and rhythm but also cultural context and research in order to do so.

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Saturday, October 11 / Tarzana, CA / Sunny’s Bookshop
In conversation with Laura Warrell and TBA

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Wednesday, November 12 / Lincoln, NE / Francie & Finch Bookshop
More info TBA