Book Launch: Shawn Stewart Ruff - Days Running

Join us for a book launch event celebrating Shawn Stewart Ruff and his new novel, Days Running, at Hive Mind Books, 219 Irving Avenue in Bushwick. Ruff will appear in conversation with Brooklyn writer Carley Moore. Afterwards, he’ll sign copies of his book.

Books will be available for purchase at Hive Mind Books the night of the event. We ask that all books signed at Hive Mind Books events be purchased from Hive Mind Books. If you already have the book, we ask that you buy something else at the store while here, if it’s within your means. Thank you for supporting an independent queer bookstore!

A dynamic portrait of one queer, Black boy’s experience in 1970s Cincinnati.
Sixteen-year-old Cliffy Douglas’s life is leveling up. An academic superstar on an accelerated path, he’s about to put high school behind him for college on the West Coast. His mentally ill father seems committed to seeking help for both his bipolar disorder and the PTSD brought back from the war in Vietnam. Cliffy even has a boyfriend—a summer romance that just might be the real thing.
But Cliffy’s life is flung into dangerous limbo after a vicious personal assault leaves him hospitalized, and with a terrible secret that threatens to ruin his escape from his claustrophobic family into a larger, more open world. As he recovers from his brutal attack, Cliffy must gather the complicated courage to face his assailant, demand justice, and fight off an encroaching despair that threatens his future.

Shawn Stewart Ruff is the author of three novels, including Finlater, 2008 winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction and a finalist for the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award. He is also the editor of the landmark Go the Way Your Blood Beats: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction by African American Writers (1996).

Carley Moore is the author of Heart Less, Panpocalypse, The Not Wives, 16 Pills, and The Stalker Chronicles. She’s a Clinical Professor of Writing and Creative Production at New York University and an Associate at The Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College. Carley lives in Brooklyn with her kid and two cats. Follow her on Instagram @fragmentedsky or find her blogging on Substack.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Hive Mind Books, 219 Irving Avenue, Brooklyn, United States