Alanna Schubach on The Nobodies with Katherine Hill

Thursday, 7:00 pm EDT June 23, 2022

The Center for Fiction*
& Online via Zoom

In-person* tickets include a $10 bookstore voucher, redeemable toward the featured event book on the night of the event. All registrants will receive a link to livestream the event.

The Center for Fiction is thrilled to welcome Emerging Writer Fellowship alum Alanna Schubach to our stage in celebration of her debut novel, The Nobodies. Exploring themes of friendship and enmeshment, Schubach probes at the darker underbelly of the deep and abiding closeness of female connection. The Nobodies is a 21st century, A24-ified “Freaky Friday.” In the book, best friends Jess and Nina have a massive secret. Whenever they touch their foreheads together, they can switch bodies, finding solace from their own problems in each other’s worlds. After a long separation, the friends are reunited around the death of Jess’s father, and their worlds begin to mesh once more, losing themselves in the process.

Join Schubach and author Katherine Hill for this raw and honest investigation of intimacy, betrayal, and the deep and abiding closeness of female friendship.

*Proof of vaccination is required to attend this event in person. Mask wearing is also required throughout the building. Accepted vaccination proofs include:

CDC vaccination card (or an image of it)
Excelsior Pass or Excelsior Pass Plus (or a printout of it)
A record of vaccination from the healthcare provider who administered your vaccine

Anyone 5 and older is required to show proof of two vaccine doses or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Anyone 18 and older must also present a government issued photo ID.

If you remain unvaccinated because of a disability or sincerely held religious belief, please contact us at [email protected] for assistance or to request a reasonable accommodation.

In Conversation

Alanna Schubach

Alanna Schubach

Alanna Schubach’s debut novel, The Nobodies, will be published by Blackstone in June. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, the Sewanee Review, the Massachusetts Review, Electric Literature, and more. She was an Emerging Writer Fellow with The Center for Fiction, a Fellow in Fiction with the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a MacDowell fellow. She earned an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in New York, where she works as a freelance journalist and writing teacher.

Photo Credit: Zoe Fisher
Katherine Hill

Katherine Hill

Katherine Hill is the author of two novels, The Violet Hour and A Short Move, which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice. With Sarah Chihaya, Merve Emre, and Jill Richards, she is also co-author of The Ferrante Letters: An Experiment in Collective Criticism. Her fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including the Common, the Guardian, n+1, the Nation, the New Republic, and the New York Times. She is Assistant Professor of English at Adelphi University.

Photo Credit: Zoe Fisher

Featured Book

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The Nobodies

By Alanna Schubach

Published by Blackstone

PURCHASE

Jess and Nina, Nina and Jess . . . to everyone else they’re typical best friends, sharing closeness and confidences in their own little world. But Nina and Jess have a secret. Simply by touching their foreheads together, they can swap bodies.

In Jess’s assertive persona, self-conscious Nina turns bolder, free to say what she’s frightened to voice on her own. Inhabiting Nina, Jess becomes part of the loving, stable family she craves.

Now, in crisis after her father’s death, Jess has reentered Nina’s life following a long separation. Once again they switch bodies, and their worlds begin to mesh. Each deceives the other, confesses, is forgiven. But how deeply can you sink into another’s life before there’s nothing left of you? Set against the vibrant backdrop of New York City, The Nobodies poses questions about the nature of intimacy, the many flavors of betrayal, and the value of female friendships.