Name: A Novel Book Club: DEAR COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Start: 2026-06-17T19:00:00-05:00
Location: 387 Perkins Ext, Memphis, TN, United States, Tennessee 38117

A Novel Book Club: DEAR COMMITTEE MEMBERS

A Novel Book Club invites you to a meeting on Wednesday, June 17 at 7PM to discuss DEAR COMMITTEE MEMBERS by Julie Schumacher. All are welcome, whether you've ever attended a meeting or not. No registration required!
Use coupon code BOOKCLUB10 to get your 10% book club discount when purchasing online here.
In store book club book purchases will also receive a 10% discount.
And if you prefer audiobooks, purchases from Libro.fm benefit Novel as well when you make us your home and purchase here.
Description
“Like Richard Russo’s Straight Man this book has a lot to say about the humanities in American colleges and universities…. Very funny and also moving.” —Tom Perrotta, New York Post
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR and Boston Globe
Finally a novel that puts the "pissed" back into "epistolary."
Jason Fitger is a beleaguered professor of creative writing and literature at Payne University, a small and not very distinguished liberal arts college in the midwest. His department is facing draconian cuts and squalid quarters, while one floor above them the Economics Department is getting lavishly remodeled offices. His once-promising writing career is in the doldrums, as is his romantic life, in part as the result of his unwise use of his private affairs for his novels. His star (he thinks) student can't catch a break with his brilliant (he thinks) work Accountant in a Bordello, based on Melville's Bartleby.
In short, his life is a tale of woe, and the vehicle this droll and inventive novel uses to tell that tale is a series of hilarious letters of recommendation that Fitger is endlessly called upon by his students and colleagues to produce, each one of which is a small masterpiece of high dudgeon, low spirits, and passive-aggressive strategies. We recommend Dear Committee Members to you in the strongest possible terms.
Don’t miss Julie Schumacher's new novel, The English Experience, coming soon.
About the Author
JULIE SCHUMACHER grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and graduated from Oberlin College and Cornell University. Her first novel, The Body Is Water, was published by Soho Press in 1995 and was an ALA Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her other books include a short story collection, An Explanation for Chaos, and five books for younger readers. She lives in St. Paul and is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English at the University of Minnesota.