New Jersey Fan Club Book Event

Join us for a reading featuring contributors Brandon Harrison, Caren Lissner, Raakhee Mirchandani, Kerri Sullivan, and Bob Varettoni, a Q&A with additional contributors, and signing.

Despite the many jokes and stereotypes about New Jersey and its residents, in reality the state is a wildly diverse place, home to a vast variety of landscapes, cultures, and people. There is no singular New Jersey experience, and the stories that its residents have to share about the state will surprise you.

New Jersey Fan Club: Artists and Writers Celebrate the Garden State (Rutgers University Press) is an eclectic anthology featuring personal essays, interviews, and comics from a broad group of established and emerging writers and artists who have something to say about New Jersey. It offers a multifaceted look at the state’s history and significance, told through narrative nonfiction, photographs, and illustrations.

New Jersey Fan Club is edited by Kerri Sullivan, founder of the popular Instagram account Jersey Collective (@jerseycollective), which features weekly takeovers by different New Jerseyans. This book functions the same way: it gives dozens of different contributors the chance to share what New Jersey looks like to them. The book is an exploration of how the same locale can shape people in different ways, and it will inspire readers to look at the Garden State with fresh eyes and appreciate its bounty of beautiful places and vibrant spaces.

This event is co-sponsored by Little City Books and Hoboken Public Library. Books will be on sale in the lobby!

About the Writers

• Brandon Harrison is a creative who has produced written, audio, and visual content for a variety of outlets. He curates films at a number of international film festivals and was born in Newark, NJ.
• Caren Lissner is a Hoboken resident who grew up in Freehold and Old Bridge, N.J. Her humorous coming-of-age novel, Carrie Pilby, was made into a film starring Bel Powley and Nathan Lane that’s currently streaming on Netflix. She’s also written articles and essays for the Washington Post, New York Times, and the Atlantic.
• Raakhee Mirchandani is a Hoboken-based writer, author and mother. Her children’s books include Hair Twins, Super Satya Saves the Day, and My Diwali Light, out this September. She is amped to be raising a second generation Jersey girl, her 8-year-old daughter Satya, who shows great promise of carrying forth the title with guts, grit and glory.
• Kerri Sullivan is the editor of New Jersey Fan Club: Artists & Writers Celebrate the Garden State (Rutgers University Press) and the founder of Jersey Collective. Her writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Catapult, Podcast Review, and elsewhere. She is from Monmouth County but now lives in Essex County.
• Bob Varettoni is a public relations professional who has spent most of his career in New York, and all of his life in New Jersey.