Reading by Carley Moore

Carley Moore will be in conversation with Sejal Shah. It’s early summer in New York City, 2020. The city is largely shut down, and Orpheus—our queer, disabled, poly hero—is lonely, devoid of touch and community. Orpheus manages to buy a bike just before they sell out and takes to the streets looking for Eurydice, the first woman she fell in love with, who broke her heart. But then Orpheus hears mysterious news of the underground bar Le Monocle, fashioned after the 1930s Parisian lesbian club of the same name. Can she find it? Will she ever be allowed to love again? “Panpocalypse is the pandemic novel we all need—honest, raw, sexy, sad, joyful, and so, so smart. I couldn’t put this book down. The prose crackles, the story line shimmers; it has the energy of a queer, disabled Elena Ferrante living in modern-day New York City. There’s gritty reality, and there’s also the most fun escapist fantasy (and time travel!). ” —Amy Shearn, author of Unseen City Carley Moore is the author of the essay collection 16 Pills, the poetry chapbook Portal Poem, the young adult novel The Stalker Chronicles, and the novel The Not Wives, published by Feminist Press in 2019. Her work has appeared in the American Poetry Review, Brainchild, The Brooklyn Rail, The Journal of Popular Culture, and other publications. She is a clinical professor of writing and contemporary culture and creative production in the Global Liberal Studies Program at New York University and a senior associate at Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking. This is a virtual event streamed via Zoom.