Please join us for an in-person event celebrating the release of IF TOMORROW DOESN'T COME by Jen St. Jude! For this event, Jen will be in conversation with Jas Hammonds.
Please note: Pre-registration for this event is required. By pre-registering, you are verifying that you are fully vaccinated and will wear a mask throughout the entirety of the event.
We Are Okay meets They Both Die at the End in this YA debut about queer first love and mental health at the end of the world-and the importance of saving yourself, no matter what tomorrow may hold.
Avery Byrne has secrets. She's queer; she's in love with her best friend, Cass; and she's suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to live: an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.
Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns to save herself. Speak her truth. Seek the support she needs. Find hope again in the tomorrows she has left.
If Tomorrow Doesn't Come is a celebration of queer love, a gripping speculative narrative, and an urgent, conversation-starting book about depression, mental health, and shame.
Jen St. Jude is a Lambda Literary Fellow, who holds creative writing degrees from Colby College and Harvard University Extension School. She works in talent acquisition and has served as an editor at the Chicago Review of Books, Arcturus Magazine, Burning Worlds – Climate Change in Art & Literature, and Just Femme & Dandy Magazine. Jen grew up in New Hampshire apple orchards but now lives in Chicago with her wife and catlike dog. jenstjude.com • @jenstjude
Jas Hammonds (they/she) was raised in many cities and between the pages of many books. They have received support for their writing from Lambda Literary, Baldwin for the Arts, the Highlights Foundation and more. They are also a grateful recipient of the MacDowell James Baldwin Fellowship. Their debut novel, We Deserve Monuments, won the 2023 Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe Award for New Talent, among other accolades. She lives in New Jersey.
Accessibility: This event will be held at the bookstore, which is an accessible space. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please email events@womenandchildrenfirst.com for questions and accessibility requests.
