Curtis Sittenfeld

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Jenn Ackerman

A close-up of Curtis Sittenfeld.

Curtis Sittenfeld

Curtis Sittenfeld is perhaps best known for her beloved debut novel, Prep, a classic among American prep-school coming-of-age tales. But she’s also penned the insightful novel American Wife, loosely based on first lady Laura Bush, and a smart collection of short fiction, You Think it, I’ll Say It. She comes to this Wisconsin Book Festival event to promote her second collection of short stories, Show Don’t Tell, which might be her strongest yet. She’ll be in conversation with Madison’s own Susanna Daniel, author of Sea Creatures and co-founder of the Madison Writers' Studio.

media release: A funny, fiercely intelligent, and moving collection exploring marriage, friendship, fame, and artistic ambition—including a story that revisits the main character from Curtis Sittenfeld’s iconic novel Prep—from the New York Times bestselling author of Eligible and Romantic Comedy.

In her second story collection, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned.

In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,” a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,” a married middle-aged artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,” Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school.

Hilarious, thought-provoking, and full of tenderness for her characters, Sittenfeld’s stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.