About this Event
Susan Coll celebrates the release of WORD SALAD
In-Conversation with Novelist Christina Kovac
Saturday, October 10th at 4:00 pm ET
Barnes & Noble Georgetown
3040 M St NW | 3rd Floor
Washington, DC 20007
Join us to celebrate the launch of best-selling novelist Susan Coll's WORD SALAD, a delightfully bookish, laugh-out-loud comedy of manners set in Washington, D.C. that reminds us that sometimes things have to completely fall apart in order for them to perfectly come together.
Susan will be in-conversation with fellow novelist Christina Kovac, the author of two other DC-based novels, Watch Us Fall and The Cutaway.
----------
ABOUT THE BOOK
In bestselling novelist Susan Coll’s ninth book, WORD SALAD (Harper Muse, September 15, 2026) former economics major Matilda is moving back to her hometown of Washington, D.C. to care for her ailing mother, and she’s desperate for money. She takes a job at her neighborhood bookstore and tries in vain to make sense of the illogical business of books. To make things worse, she’s forced to team up with a new hire—the enigmatic, flaky, larger-than-life Sage—who shows up on her first day of work with zero administrative skills and her tiny, puffy, incessantly urinating dog that resembles an underfed rat.
Something in the chaos begins to remind Matilda of her long-neglected creative side, and she starts to rediscover the person she was before so much got in the way. But things become more unmanageable when Matilda and Sage are tasked with putting together an event for the reclusive and controversial Dr. Jordan Rutabaga, a windbag public intellectual with a cult following that includes a number of people who would like to literally and figuratively see him dead. As well, Rutabaga has a long list of alleged misdeeds, from plagiarism to failure to pay child support to stiffing the nanny.
As the event date approaches, Matilda and Sage discover that Sage and Rutabaga have their own complicated past, adding yet another person to the list of those who do not wish him well. Add in a lawsuit and an impending snowstorm along with the potentially sinister presence of Rutabaga himself, and Matilda is about to come undone.
Bestselling author Susan Coll’s gastric, bookish, laugh-out-loud comedy of manners reminds us that sometimes things have to completely fall apart in order for them to perfectly come together.
----------
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
SUSAN COLL
USA Today and Washington Post bestselling writer Susan Coll is the author of eight previous novels, including The Literati, Real Life & Other Fictions, and Bookish People. Her other books include The Stager, Acceptance, Rockville Pike, and Karlmarx.com.
Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR.org, The Atlantic, The Millions, and other publications. Her novel, Acceptance, was made into a television movie starring Joan Cusack.
Susan is the recipient of multiple grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She works as an event consultant at the DC-based Politics and Prose Bookstore and was the president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation for five years. Coll teaches workshops at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
CHRISTINA KOVAC
Christina Kovac, author of the Watch Us Fall and The Cutaway, writes psychological suspense/thrillers set in Washington, DC.
Prior to writing fiction, Christina worked in television news, covering crime and politics at Fox 5’s Ten O’Clock News in Washington, DC, and after that as a news producer and desk editor at the Washington Bureau of NBC News.
She lives outside Washington, DC with her family. She loves morning writes with her cat on her lap, book hauls from her town library, and hiking national parks. Her favorites—C&O Canal National Park, Assateague Island, and Rock Creek Park—provided inspiration for Watch Us Fall. She’s currently at work on her third novel.
Event venue & nearby stays
Barnes & Noble Georgetown, 3040 M Street Northwest, Washington, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.