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Autofocus Books

@autofocusbooks

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Publisher of artful autobiographical writing.

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Cover reveal!!!! (Designed by @amypwheaton)

“Muscle Memory is a quietly seething braided memoir in three acts: part personal account of a lifelong relationship with ballet; part pain narrative; part researched examination of classical ballets. Dancyger exposes the systematic dismissal of women’s suffering, tests the linkages between chronic pain and trauma, and looks for answers in The Firebird—a folktale-turned-ballet about the bargains we make to free ourselves.”

Forthcoming from @autofocusbooks next April, but available for preorder now!!

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They’re here, they’re here! My copies of the new book by @laurachildsgill. One is going right in the bag for Thursday’s plane flight.

#norfolkct #norfolkctlibrary #readers #collectedworksbookstore @sfinternationallitfest @norfolklibraryct

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REVIEWS ARE IN 🤣🤣🤣 (and some from Aunties absolutely count - maybe count the most) and this book is out and about popping into people’s houses and chilling with people on the couches before publication day which makes sense because the whole book is about surprise and the ways in which time is a joke (and very real) and how what we can and can’t control are linked together in a beautiful mess!

I’ve felt so unprepared for all of it from go—including what has been the most wonderful experience of having people read it and feel something in it and even say they needed it — good lord! I could weep all day. But like I’ve done (most) every day writing this book, I’ll go hang with some teenagers who have no idea I published a book and chat with them about their own reading and writing and then I’ll come home and celebrate with Ben and then get to work — like Mary Ruefle wrote when I messaged her about a big success in her career: “I still need to vacuum the carpets.”

I love all my readers and hope and wish it finds many more — 💫

Thank you @wheaton3000 and the entire @autofocusbooks team for making this a reality!!!

And thank you to @nic.mijares for the last pic! Always trying to find ways to share more photos from that session — ! 💚

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Failure Is the Only Subject

#FailureIstheOnlySubject

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film from Disenchanted launch came back. thank you all again for celebrating my book. I love you. 🖤💔💓

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A PHILLY FANTASY THAT WAS REAL! Reading with @kayciehall and chatting with @wheaton3000 was an absolute dream and being able to read from my book in a city with so many of my absolute favorite people in the world was just the best.

I was reminded of some truths: I adore writers and the people who adore them, the team at @autofocusbooks is the best, @kayciehall ‘s book is brilliant, Philly bars are top notch, I need readers and can barely see, my friends are excellent hosts and smart as hell, fall is absolutely the best season, and I’m drawn to dumpsters and trash removal (essay forthcoming jkjk).

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“These poems are jokes and essays and also they are poems. They are gimlet-eyed but tender-hearted, light as a feather but also grounded in the earth. They are concerned with how to be a human, woman, mother, and artist in the world today. After reading them I thought, now I know more than I did before, and I was grateful for it.” @jamiattenberg Thank you for sending “Risk Tolerance” (@autofocusbooks) @niinausea

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Join portrait photographer Beowulf Sheehan as he discusses his illustrious career in portrait photography and his new book about Cormac McCarthy!

⌞ ⌝ ⌞ ⌝ ⌞ ⌝ ⌞ ⌝ ⌞ ⌝ ⌞ ⌝ ⛶ ⌞ ⌝ ⌞ ⌝ ⌞ ⌝ ⌞ ⌝ ⌞ ⌝ ⌞ ⌝

⛶ October 7
⛶ 7pm
⛶ Afterword Bookshop, 216 E 6th St, NY, NY

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Free entry, but RSVP is preferred, link in bio.

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PHILLY! Join us in two weeks! @wheaton3000 , @kayciehall and I will be chatting debut essay collections in the city where I rented my first ever apartment with @katiebmiller — we hosted many theme parties, danced hard in our basement, worked various jobs, and biked everywhere. I grew to love a city I was very sad to leave — (swipe for our first ever invite to one of our epic parties — I dug deep📷!) —

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Hi! Memoiring is inviting you join our September Book Club author Erin Slaughter (@erin_slaughter23) of “The Dead Dad Diaries” (@autofocusbooks) for a Q+A style conversation on October 1 at 6:30 PM ET.

🔗 RSVP at the link in bio. It’s free for subscribers to the Memoiring Substack.
🎤 Bring your questions on content and craft for her too. Can’t wait to see you there! - Melisse @melissejoy

#memoirwriting #griefmemoir

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🪄 just announced 🪄 We’re so stoked to be welcoming Kaycie Hall to Toronto for the launch of DISENCHANTED, Hall’s debut collection of essays, out next week from our friends at @autofocusbooks. Key themes: motherhood, breakups, books. Kaycie will be in convo with Claire Foster. 7:30 on Thursday, October 15 — free and all welcome!!

In the essays of Disenchanted, Kaycie Hall catalogues the most acute shocks of disillusionment to reclaim the complexity and depth of her experiences — a stake for identity and sense-making that has found new urgency in motherhood. From boyfriends who hid heroin addictions to a buried rivalry in friendship, from miscarriage to antidepressant withdrawal, Kaycie is prompted to revisit her own poisoned fantasies. With hard-won wisdom and resolute vulnerability, she overcomes the fierce maternal urge to protect her son from the inevitable pains of life, because it is in these heartbreaks and blunders that one becomes a person.

“In Disenchanted, Kaycie Hall examines love, friendship, motherhood, and desire with honesty and precision. This is a truly beautiful debut.”
—Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I’m Someone Else

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As one of the world's premier literary portrait photographers, and as our official festival photographer since 2017, @beowulfsheehan has captured the faces behind contemporary literature's defining works.

In this special session, Sheehan presents his new book, The Father of the Man: The Last Author Portrait Sitting with Cormac McCarthy (Autofocus, 2026).

A book signing will immediately follow the presentation.

This event is free and open to the public. For the full festival schedule, head over to windhamcampbell.org 🎉

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