Kristi Coulter (in conversation with Claire Dederer) - Nothing Good Can Come From This

Join us for a special launch event as local authors Kristi Coulter and Claire Dederer celebrate the release of Coulter's debut essay collection.

Coulter inspired and riled the internet when she wrote about the things she started noticing when she stopped drinking. Like when you give up a debilitating habit, it leaves a space, one that can't easily be filled by mocktails or ice cream or sex or crafting. And when you cancel Rosé Season for yourself, you're left with just Summer, and that's when you notice that the women around you are tanked—that alcohol is the oil in the motors that keeps them purring when they could be making other kinds of noise. Nothing Good Can Come From This is frank, funny, and feminist—written by a keen-eyed observer no longer numbed into complacency.

When Kristi stopped drinking, she started noticing things. Like when you give up a debilitating habit, it leaves a space, one that can't easily be filled by mocktails or ice cream or sex or crafting. And when you cancel Rosé Season for yourself, you're left with just Summer, and that's when you notice that the women around you are tanked--that alcohol is the oil in the motors that keeps them purring when they could be making other kinds of noise.

In her sharp, incisive debut essay collection, Coulter reveals a portrait of a life in transition. By turns hilarious and heartrending, Nothing Good Can Come From This introduces a fierce new voice to fans of Sloane Crosley, David Sedaris, and Cheryl Strayed—perfect for anyone who has ever stood in the middle of a so-called perfect life and looked for an escape hatch.

Expect a fun—and funny—evening. Non-alcoholic refreshments will be served. Free; no tickets required.

"Kristi Coulter charts the raw, unvarnished, and quietly riveting terrain of new sobriety with wit and warmth. Nothing Good Can Come from This is a book about generative discomfort, surprising sources of beauty, and the odd, often hilarious, business of being human."
—Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams and The Recovering

"Brave, whip-smart, and laugh-out-loud funny. Kristi Coulter does not pull any punches tackling the taboos in so many women's lives: addiction, sex, money, privilege, ambition, adultery, and power. In these essays, she bares her own soul to a greater end, writing with unflinching honesty and unexpected poetry. Although this is framed as a book about drinking, it's ultimately about so much more: the insidious reasons why so many of us might polish off an entire bottle of Chardonnay in the first place--and how we might better serve ourselves in the end. Coulter herself is addictive to read. She's a fresh, uncensored voice, offering up more than a drop of insight and hope."

New York Times-bestselling author Susan Jane Gilman

"What's the opposite of disappointment? Oh right, pure joy.That's what I felt reading Nothing Good Can Come from This. I was dazzled by Kristi Coulter's honesty, her humor, and above all her beautiful, perfectly tuned sentences. Rarely do formal invention and real emotion coexist so comfortably; in other words, both intelligence and heart are on full display here. It's difficult to imagine a more, well, joyous reading experience."
—Claire Dederer, author of Love and Trouble

"Perfectly observant down to the smallest details, this account of drinking, sobriety, and starting (and then restarting) a manageable life is one of those books that is deeply serious, witty, and wonderfully compelling. The miracle of Kristi Coulter's narrative is that it looks back at the reader and asks, 'And how do you live?' Nothing Good Can Come from This seems to speak for a whole generation, and it does so with great charm and brilliance."

—Charles Baxter, author of The Feast of Love

"Kristi Coulter's Nothing Good Can Come from This is powerful medicine--healing in its fearlessness and elegant in its form. It is an inspiring account of a human being committed to examining her own life and mind in the midst of a toxic and tuned-out contemporary culture, and is recommended reading for anyone interested in doing the same."
—Bonnie Nadzam, author of Lamb

"Kristi Coulter says all the things you're not supposed to say and points out all the things you've kind of noticed but never quite articulated. Nothing Good Can Come from This is equal parts hilarious and poignant, beautiful and wise. These are clear-eyed, fresh, and vital essays about addiction, sex, money, love, and the messy, terrifying work of being a person in this world."

—Diana Spechler, author of Skinny and Who by Fire

"Nothing Good Can Come from This is a refreshing, candid, and very funny look into the life of a woman trying to learn how to be sober in a world that seems to want everyone to keep drinking. In unapologetic and deeply intelligent prose, Kristi Coulter exposes her own flaws while also turning a critical eye to our alcohol-drenched culture. This book is about sobriety, but it's even more about a woman trying to define herself on her own terms, outside the frames of work, sex, and family."

—Tom McAllister, author of How to Be Safe

Kristi Coulter holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan. She is a former Ragdale Foundation resident and the recipient of a grant from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. Her work has appeared in The Awl, Marie Claire, Vox, Quartz, and elsewhere. Nothing Good Can Come from This is her debut book. She lives in Seattle, Washington. Find out more at www.kristicoulter.com.