Tucson Festival of Books

Reinvention and Reality


In a world defined by uncertainty, how do we remake ourselves? What stories do we tell to make sense of chaos? This panel brings together three authors who capture the contemporary moment with humor, empathy and imagination, exploring how people adapt, resist and reinvent their lives.


Panelists
Jade Chang

Jade Chang’s debut novel, "The Wangs vs. the World," won the VCU-Cabell First Novelist Award and has been published in a dozen countries. Her journalism and essays have recently appeared in The Best American Food Writing, and in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times....

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Nikki Erlick

Nikki Erlick is a New York Times bestselling author. Her debut novel, "The Measure," was a Read with Jenna Book Club pick on the Today Show and has been translated into 24 languages. Her second novel, "The Poppy Fields," was an instant USA Today bestseller, a Goodreads Most Anticipated Book, and a national LibraryReads selection....

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Brandon Hobson

Brandon Hobson's novel "Where the Dead Sit Talking" was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction. He has won fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the UCROSS Foundation. He teaches creative writing at New Mexico State University and at the Institute of American Indian Arts and is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation Tribe of Oklahoma....

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Books:
What a Time to Be Alive
A Novel
Jade Chang
Fiction / Literature
HarperCollins Publishers
September 2025
ISBN 9780063416390
304 pages
Buy now

The Poppy Fields (Standard Edition)
A Novel
Nikki Erlick
Fiction / Literature
HarperCollins Publishers
June 2025
ISBN 9780063449442
320 pages
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The Devil Is a Southpaw
A Novel
Brandon Hobson
Fiction / Literature
HarperCollins Publishers
October 2025
ISBN 9780063259652
352 pages
Buy now