Tucson Festival of Books

When Life Gets Messy, Just Smile!


Memoirists David Litt, Maris Kreizman and Annabelle Gurwitch have a gift for turning crisis and mortality into storytelling gold, using humor and candor to illuminate what it means to stay human when life gets messy. Maybe they can teach us how we can grin and bear it, too.


Panelists
Annabelle Gurwitch

Annabelle Gurwitch is an actress and New York Times bestselling author of six books and a two-time Thurber Prize finalist. Her essays and satire have appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, WSJ, and The Washington Post....

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Maris Kreizman

Maris Kreizman is an essayist and columnist for Literary Hub. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, and Esquire....

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David Litt

David Litt is the former senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama. He has been described as the comic muse for the president for his work on White House Correspondents’ Dinner monologues....


Books:
The End of My Life Is Killing Me
Essays
Annabelle Gurwitch
Memoir / Essays / Creative Nonfiction
Zibby Publishing
March 2026
ISBN 9798992377071
208 pages
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It's Only Drowning
A True Story of Learning to Surf and the Search for Common Ground
David Litt
Memoir / Essays / Creative Nonfiction
Simon and Schuster
June 2025
ISBN 9781668035351
304 pages
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I Want to Burn This Place Down
Essays
Maris Kreizman
Memoir / Essays / Creative Nonfiction
HarperCollins
July 2025
ISBN 9780063305847
176 pages
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