As a part of our Independent Bookstore Day celebration, H&H Books is hosting Jordan Ritter Conn to celebrate his new book, American Men. Our evening event will kick off at 7 PM on Saturday, April 25, with doors opening at 6:30 PM.
Philly-based author Joseph Earl Thomas, author of Sink: A Memoir and God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, will join Jordan in conversation. A Q&A and book signing will follow their discussion. Copies of both authors’ books will be available for purchase at the event.
Registration is pay-what-you-want and highly recommended. (Registration helps us plan the arrangement of our space and know how many books to order.)
Questions? Email events@theheadandthehand.com, and follow @theheadandthehand on Instagram for events, book clubs, updates, and more.
About American Men:
American Men is reported, intimate narrative journalism in the vein of Matthew Desmond’s Evicted and Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women.
Jordan Ritter Conn spent five years immersed in the lives of four very different American men to explore how each constructs their relationship to masculinity and how they navigate that relationship over time.
Ryan is an amateur MMA fighter from the Akwesasne Mohawk territory, struggling to come to terms with both his sexuality as a closeted gay man and his draw toward bar room violence. Gideon is an itinerant, tall, handsome West Point graduate and former baseball star who unravels when he encounters challenges to his status as the white masculine ideal. Joseph is a Seattle law student whose marriage teeters on the brink of turmoil as he tries to contend with the effects of childhood sexual trauma. Nate is living at home in Ohio and trying to establish security for himself in a rural pocket of a red state, where he's under threat as someone who is Black, trans, and poor.
Harrowing yet hopeful, American Men weaves their stories into a compelling tapestry that explores identity, heritage, and the pressures and performance of modern American masculinity.
About the Authors:
Jordan Ritter Conn is the author of The Road From Raqqa: A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging, runner-up for the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He is a Senior Staff Writer for The Ringer and the host of the narrative podcasts "What If: The Len Bias Story" and "Sonic Boom," named by The Atlantic as one of the best podcasts of 2019. He lives in Nashville with his wife, Beth. IG: @jordanritterconn
Joseph Earl Thomas is the author of the memoir Sink, a finalist for the William Saroyan International Writing Prize; the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize; and the forthcoming story collection Leviathan Beach (Penguin Random House, 2027). His prose and poetry has been published in The Paris Review, The Verge, VQR, Harper’s, N+1, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere. His honors include the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize, The Anisfield-Wolf Fellowship in Writing and Publishing, and fellowships from The Miami Bookfair, Fulbright, and The Hermitage. He teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and Literature courses at The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. Instagram: @jetvgc