catch me in the wild!

Identity and the Apocalypse

​Flintridge Bookstore
March 9th, 2025
4 PM

​Rie Lee, author of the dystopian novel Vessel, and Erik James Troy, author of the sicence fiction novel Icarus Dawns discuss the intersections of dystopian and science fiction writing and different perspectives on presenting post-apocalyptic themes, including individualism versus collectivism. The settings of both books invoke a sense of renewal in the wake of destruction. Lee’s is a renewal of community that leads to cult-like behavior. Troy’s renewal is a union crafted in spite of people’s differences. 

Image credit: "Photo of Brown Bare Tree on Brown Surface during Daytime" by Pixabay

Build Your Own Speculative World

​Octavia Butler Science Fiction Festival
March 21, 2025
3:00pm - 6:00pm
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Science fiction is a subset of speculative fiction--the imagining of possible worlds that aren't our own. Developing speculative worlds allows readers to explore the "what-if"s of reality. What if, for example, you could visit a world of androids and do anything you wanted with no consequences (Westworld), or you could live in a world where there was literally no pain (The Giver)? Or if religious extremism took over the United States and people with uteruses were forced to have babies for the elite (The Handmaid's Tale), or if you lived in a world where there's nothing but pain because of everpresent greed in a now-modern Southern California (Parable of the Sower)? This event invites you to build your own speculative world, inviting you to answer your own "what-if" questions that resonate with you today. It's led by local Pasadena author Rie Lee, whose book Vessel explores a post-apocalyptic Fresno, California where a gay teenager wants to be a human sacrifice in order to escape a coerced marriage in her utopian, heteronormative cult.  ​

Image credit: "Pile of Covered Books" by Pixabay

Dynamic Identities in YA Fiction 

​GetLit! Festival
Spokane Central Library, Conference Room B
​Friday April 11, 2025
2:00pm - 3:00pm

Young Adult fiction is a relatively new genre but in the past two decades has exploded in popularity. Whether fantasy, sci-fi, or contemporary, the genre is ripe for reflection for adolescent readers as they explore their identities in the context of contemporary issues like authenticity, privilege, and intersectionality. Join YA authors Rie Lee and Jennifer Yu in a conversation about writing themes of identity in books intended for teen readers. Rie Lee’s recent debut, Vessel, is a dystopian novel centered around a girl wrestling with her forbidden sexuality as the poster child for her religious cult, and Jennifer Yu’s latest novel Grief in the Fourth Dimension explores how identity, family, and community affect the ways our lives (and deaths) are remembered. The authors will discuss how speculative worlds can be used to balance accessibility, storytelling, and realistic characterization while exploring ever-shifting and nuanced senses of identity. This conversation will be moderated by festival intern and EWU MFA fiction candidate Emily Ladd.