Lori Ostlund's ARE YOU HAPPY? In Store Presentation And Book Signing

Join us at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore on Thursday, May 8 at 7:00 PM when award winning author Lori Ostlund comes to the store to share her latest short story collection Are You Happy? Lori will be joined in conversation by author/ journalist Alec Scott and will sign copies of her book after the presentation.

Nine masterful stories that explore class, desire, identity, and the spectrum of violence in America–and in American families–against women and the LGBTQ+ community.

In Lori Ostlund’s exquisite collection, Are You Happy?, she examines the lives of people who have left their place and culture of origin behind. Set in Minnesota, New Mexico, and California, we watch Ostlund’s characters as they try–and often fail–to make peace with their pasts while navigating their present relationships and responsibilities.

In deceptively straightforward prose Ostlund delves deep into the interpersonal and grapples with the compulsion to make others happy–and the elusiveness of being happy oneself. As a woman mourns the premature loss of her best friend’s youth, two parents the life of their son, a queer couple their feeling of safety, and a daughter her family’s political integrity, Ostlund paints a distinctly American portrait of violence manifest at its most intimate scale.

Richly layered and structurally complex, these stories have a novelistic feel. Lori Ostlund is a master of the form and Are You Happy? showcases her best work to date.

LORI OSTLUND is the author of Are You Happy? (Astra House, 2025), which includes work that appeared in the 2024 Best American Short Stories. Her novel After the Parade (Scribner, 2015) was a B&N Discover pick, a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the Ferro-Grumley Award, and a NYTimes Editors’ Choice. The Bigness of the World (UGA, 2009) received the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award, and the California Book Award for First Fiction. Her stories have appeared in the Best American Short Stories, the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, ZYZZYVA, and New England Review, among other places. Lori has received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award and was a finalist for the Simpson Family Literary Prize. Lori is series editor of the Flannery O’Connor Award. She lives in San Francisco with her wife, the writer Anne Raeff.

Journalist ALEC SCOTT has written for the New York Times, Guardian, Sunset and the Smithsonian Magazine. His features have won awards, including a Lowell Thomas from the Society of American Travel Writers, a North American Travel Journalists’ Association gold, and three National Magazine Awards in his native Canada. The Globe & Mail said his 2022 novel, Until It Shimmers, was a “sparkling debut, a coming-of-age story drenched in longing.” In 2023, he published the pop history Oldest San Francisco. An Oakland resident, he has taught writing at Stanford.

THIS EVENT is free but registration is requested. Registration ends at 5:30 pm on May 8.

BECAUSE SEATING is limited, please register only if you plan to attend.

DUE TO SPACE limitations, we may not be able to accommodate every person at an event, so early registration is encouraged.

WALK-INS will be accommodated only if space allows.

WE ASK that attendees arrive between 6:45 and 7:00 PM for the event.

PLEASE leave your non-support companion animals at home

OUR shared restrooms are not accessible after 6:30 PM, please plan accordingly.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Mrs Dalloway's, 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, United States