John Wiswell + Meg Elison: Someone You Can Build A Nest In

Join us for an in-person event with Nebula Award-winning debut author John Wiswell for the launch of his debut novel Someone You Can Build A Nest In. Joining John in conversation is Hugo Award-winning writer Meg Elison. This event will be hosted in the Strand Book Store's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at 828 Broadway on 12th Street.

Can’t make the event?

STRAND IN-PERSON EVENT COVID-19 POLICY:

Masks and vaccination checks are not required for entry.* Attendees are welcome to wear a mask if they choose. If you do not have a mask and would like one, The Strand will provide masks at the door.

*Please note this is subject to change any time before or during the event per the author’s request.

ACCESSIBILITY:

Strand Book Store is an ADA compliant venue. The event space is accessible via elevator. Please ask a Strand employee upon arrival for directions to accessible seating if preferred.

ASL interpretation is available for this event by request only. Please reach out to our events team at [email protected] by March 19th to request.

For further information on accessibility in this space, or to make a request, please contact

--------------------------------------------------------------------

GIDEON THE NINTH meets CIRCE in this creepy, charming monster-slaying sapphic romance—from the perspective of the monster—by Nebula Award-winning debut author John Wiswell

Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she's fallen in love. Shesheshen is a shapeshifter who happily resides as an amorphous lump in the swamp of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by impolite monster hunters, she constructs a body fit for devouring by reabsorbing the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap for an extra mouth.   

After one incident goes badly, Shesheshen’s nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way. Shesheshen is about to confess her identity when Homily reveals that she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster who supposedly cursed her family. 

Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she must discover why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.

John Wiswell is a disabled writer who lives where New York keeps all its trees. He won the 2021 Nebula Award for Best Short Fiction for "Open House on Haunted Hill," and the 2022 Locus Award for Best Novelette for "That Story Isn't The Story." He has also been a finalist for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and British Fantasy Awards. His fiction has been translated into ten languages, and has appeared in venues such as Uncanny Magazine, the LeVar Burton Reads podcast, Tordotcom, Nature Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine, and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. His debut novel, SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN, is forthcoming from DAW Books in April of 2024. He can be found around the internet through his Linktree: https://linktr.ee/johnwiswell.

Meg Elison is a Hugo, Philip K. Dick and Locus award winning author, as well as a Nebula, Sturgeon, and Otherwise awards finalist. A prolific short story writer and essayist, Elison has been published in Scientific American, McSweeney’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fangoria, and Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley. She lives in Brooklyn.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Strand Book Store, 828 Broadway, New York, United States