What is love? Is it different than a Crush? Is there truth written in the lines of fiction? Esteemed authors Ada Calhoun and Jessica Soffer invite you to a discussion about their latest novels, Crush & This is a Love Story, and to dive with them into the sea of inquiry as they trace their lines of intersection and experience. Both books were two of the most discussed books of the year, with This is a Love Story breaking into the New York Times best-sellers list and Crush, being named a most anticipated book of 2025 by Time, Vulture, Bustle, Bloomberg, AARP, and Literary Hub. Following the discussion, there will be a brief Q&A with the authors. Books will be available for purchase and can be signed at the end of the event.  

Both works of fiction published earlier this year have an inspirational jump-off point rooted in the authors’ lives and deal with themes around partnership, love, loyalty, responsibility, and more. The nets in each book are cast wider than romantic love and allow readers to question the mechanics of love as it pertains to friendships, family, and professional colleagues. 

Crush, published February 25th, 2025 with Viking/Penguin is Calhoun’s debut work of fiction. The author of the celebrated memoir, Also a Poet, as well as cultural histories St. Marks Is Dead and Why We Can’t Sleep, brings her signature wit and humor to the gripping, sumptuous, zeitgeist-y novel about the state of marriage, midlife, and what happens when both are upended by the sudden, electrifying passion of a crush. 

“Crush (Such a charged word) interrogates all that we think we know about love and soulmates, commitment and conviction while tracking the long struggle to fully become oneself and do right.” – Booklist [starred review]

This Is A Love Story, published February 4th, 2025, through Dutton is Soffer’s sophomore novel and was received with enthusiastic critical acclaim like her debut novel There Will Be Apricots. Soffer brings a realistic, poetic, and delicate artistry to a moving family saga about a couple’s enduring love intermingling with their son’s feeling of alienation, a story of how hard life can be, and how the bond of love though tested can still endure in the face of inevitable challenges. 

“Written with delicate and beautiful brush strokes, this is a love story of a long marriage, a love story of Central Park, a story of how hard life can be, and how the hard leaves its mark, but the love does too. Every once in a while I read a novel and think, what a gift. This is one of those books.” – Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful and Dear Edward

A special thank you to our collaborating community book sellers, Canio’s Books, for joining us on this program.

Ada Calhoun’s career, the Village Voice noted in 2015, “can seem as though it were cobbled together from the resumés of three ambitious journalists.” Calhoun is a reporter, essayist, memoirist, ghostwriter and — as of this year — novelist; now, she will make her Chautauqua Lecture Series debut in conversation with Kwame Alexander, discussing the passions and opportunities that have shaped her life.

Ada Cal­houn is the author of, most recently, Crush — her debut novel released in 2025. Other works include Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me, which was longlist­ed for an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Non­fic­tion; Why We Can’t Sleep: Wom­en’s New Midlife Cri­sis; St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of Amer­i­ca’s Hippest Street; and the mem­oir Wed­ding Toasts I’ll Nev­er Give.

Throughout her career, Calhoun has been a crime reporter for the New York Post, fre­quent con­trib­u­tor to The New York Times Book Review, and the­ater list­ings edi­tor for New York mag­a­zine. She is an A‑list ghost­writer, hav­ing anony­mous­ly col­lab­o­rat­ed on 30 major non­fic­tion books in the past dozen years, includ­ing sev­er­al No. 1 New York Times bestsellers. She has writ­ten for Time, Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Trav­el­er, the Times Lit­er­ary Sup­ple­ment, the New Repub­lic, Bill­board, Cos­mopoli­tan, The Wash­ing­ton Post and Red­book.

Calhoun’s nation­al news report­ing has won sev­er­al awards, includ­ing a USC-Annen­berg Nation­al Health Jour­nal­ism Fel­low­ship, a Kiplinger fel­low­ship, a CCF Media Award (for her New York Times Mag­a­zine work on a legal chal­lenge in Alaba­ma), a Croly Award, and an Ali­cia Pat­ter­son Foun­da­tion fel­low­ship. She received a Mac­Dow­ell colony stay in 2013 for St. Marks Is Dead and has been grant­ed sev­er­al res­i­den­cies in the New York Pub­lic Library’s schol­ars’ rooms, includ­ing in 2023–24. In 2023 she was a fel­low at the Hawthorn­den Cas­tle in Scotland.

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, producer and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated — the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

The Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and Inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Chautauqua Institution, Alexander is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Coretta Scott King Author Honor, three NAACP Image Award nominations and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award. In 2018, he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy program he co-founded. Alexander is executive producer, showrunner, and Emmy-winning writer of “The Crossover” TV series, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. “The Crossover” was produced in partnership with LeBron James’ SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Alexander’s production company where he serves as CEO and co-founder, dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment.

His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.

Join us for a launch event with prolific psychotherapist and author Meg Josephson, discussing her new book Are You Mad At Me? Joining Meg in conversation is New York Times bestselling author Ada Calhoun. This event will be hosted in the Strand Book Store's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at 828 Broadway on 12th Street.