Biography of X Virtual Open Book Meeting
Moderated + Selected by Carolinas Editor Robert Alan Grand
Zoom
Monday, November 23 from 6-7PM EST

Burnaway is excited to announce our next pick for Open Book, our first editorial book club. Selected by Carolinas Editor at Large Robert Alan Grand, our next Open Book pick is Biography of X by Catherine Lacey. Robert will lead a virtual book club on Monday, November 23 from 6-7PM EST. Register for the virtual book club here.

Biography of X can be purchased via Firestorm Books in Asheville. Mention Burnaway’s Open Book at check-out or use code BURNAWAY online to receive 10% off.

The in-person book club in Asheville will be held at DayTrip on Wednesday, December 2 from 6-8PM EST. Register for the in-person book club here. 

Held in-person and virtually, Open Book is a literary program for curious readers who are interested in engaging with stories touching on both art and our coverage region of the South and Caribbean. At a time marked by AI-generated content and declining reading habits, Open Book serves as a space for critical thinking, thoughtful discussion, and gathering. Through this program, we hope to continue fostering a community of engaged readers across our coverage region and beyond. 

Biography of X was published in 2023 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. From FSG: “When X—an iconoclastic artist, writer, and polarizing shape-shifter—falls dead in her office, her widow, CM, wild with grief and refusing everyone’s good advice, hurls herself into writing a biography of the woman she deified. Though X was recognized as a crucial creative force of her era, she kept a tight grip on her life story. Not even CM knows where X was born, and in her quest to find out, she opens a Pandora’s box of secrets, betrayals, and destruction. All the while, she immerses herself in the history of the Southern Territory, a fascist theocracy that split from the rest of the country after World War II, and which finally, in the present day, is being forced into an uneasy reunification.”