About this Event
The $28 event ticket reserves your seat and purchases a copy of CLUTCH! The $5 ticket reserves a seat only; you will receive a $5 voucher upon arrival to spend at the store for a purchase that night!
Walk-ins to this event are welcome but space is limited.
Hope to see you in the shop!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Clutch follows a group of five women, friends for twenty years, as they navigate the biggest challenges of their lives, asking: When you’re hanging on by your fingernails, how can you extend a hand to the ones you love?
As undergrads, Reba, Hillary, Carson, Gregg, and Bella formed the kind of rare bond that college brochures promise—friendship that lasts a lifetime. Two decades later, the women are spread across the country but remain firmly tethered through their ever-unfurling group chat. They’ve made it through COVID and childbirth and midcareer challenges, but no one can anticipate what’s coming down the pike.
The five women converge on Palm Springs for a long overdue reunion: Gregg, who has forged a path as a progressive Texas legislator, is facing a huge decision about her political future. Reba, who moved back to the Bay Area after decades away, is deep in IVF treatments while caring for her aging parents and navigating a San Francisco she hardly recognizes. Hillary’s medical career in Chicago is going great—but at home, her husband’s struggles with addiction have derailed their life. In New York City, Bella faces the biggest case in her career as a litigator while her home life crumbles around her, and across the river in Brooklyn, Carson is working on a new novel as well as forging a possible relationship with the father she’s never met.
Twenty years into their shared friendship, the stakes are higher than ever, and they must help one another reconcile professional ambition with personal tumult. Clutch is a big, beautiful, and deeply absorbing novel that asks how much space and heart we can give to our friends and our families, and what space we can save for ourselves.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Emily Nemens is a writer, editor, illustrator, and educator. Her debut novel, The Cactus League, was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2020 and released in paperback by Picador in 2021. Her second novel, Clutch, was published by Tin House/Zando in February 2026.
From 2018 to 2021, Emily served as the editor of The Paris Review, the nation’s preeminent literary quarterly. During her tenure, the magazine won the 2020 American Society of Magazine Editors’ Award for Fiction, published two anthologies, and produced the second season of its acclaimed podcast. Previously, she coedited The Southern Review, a heralded literary journal published at Louisiana State University. Stories published during her tenures at The Southern Review and The Paris Review were selected for the Pushcart Prize anthology, Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Prize anthology, and PEN America Best Debut Fiction. In 2021 she joined the staff of Stranger’s Guide as the sports/senior editor.
In recent years, Emily has taught creative writing workshops to graduate students (Bennington Writing Seminars), undergraduates (Drew University), in community based-settings (92NY and Center for Fiction), and as an invited guest at universities around the globe (Picador Guest Professorship for Literature, University of Leipzig and Rachel Rivers-Coffey Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing, Appalachian State University). She also has presented craft lectures, manuscript consultations, lit mag coaching and editorial Q&As at dozens of universities, literary conferences, and community-based organizations.
Emily grew up in Seattle and received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University, where she studied art history and studio art. She completed an MFA degree in fiction at Louisiana State University. As an illustrator, she’s collaborated with Harvey Pekar, published her work in The New Yorker, and her watercolor portraits of every woman in congress were featured across the web and on national TV. Her short stories have appeared in Blackbird (Tarumoto Prize winner), Esquire, n+1, The Iowa Review, Hobart, and The Gettysburg Review. She was a fellow and then curator for the Hermitage Artist Retreat, has had residencies at the Kerouac Project and Hewnoaks, and received a 2026 Individual Artist Finalist award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She lives in New Jersey and remains a Mariners fan.
BOOK REVIEWS:
“Nemens is meticulous in building each character’s universe, stacking them with blessings and obstacles alike.”—Joumana Khatib, NYT Book Review
“Through miscarriages, divorces, deaths and loneliness, these largely ambitious and successful women protect each other like lionesses, providing a kind of support that their families and partners just can’t….there’s something universal and lovely about the way “Clutch” portrays the crucial and deep love that only friendship can provide.“ —Michelle Kicherer, SF Chronicle
“‘White Lotus’ with more sincerity and heart.”—LA Times
“This is the great millennial retelling of The Group… a real pleasure.” —NYT Book Review podcast
ABOUT THE MEDIATOR:
Tim DeMarco is a teacher, translator, writer, and wannabe musician. Release Me is his first novel. He currently lives at the Jersey Shore, where—despite having such a big mouth— he constantly bites off more than he can chew. Visit him at timdemarco.com.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Asbury Book Cooperative, 644A Cookman Avenue, Asbury Park, United States
USD 7.18 to USD 31.72
