BRATTLEBORO – The Brattleboro Literary Festival invites everyone to join us for a monthly online literature cocktail hour on Friday, July 8 at 5:00 p.m. featuring acclaimed writer Sarah Manguso in conversation with Vermont author Makenna Goodman.

Sarah’s new novel, Very Cold People, set in the frozen, snow-covered town of Waitsfield, Massachusetts, is all she’s ever known. But this is not quaint New England. Once “home of the bean and the cod, where Lowells only speak to Cabots and Cabots only to God,” it is an unforgiving place of mystery at the end of the 20th century. Very Cold People tells Ruthie’s story through her eyes – this is her story. From the shame passed down from her immigrant ancestors and indomitable mother, to the acts of violence endured by her high school friends, each of whom suffers a worse fate than the last. Part social commentary and part gothic horror, Very Cold People is an ungilded portrait of girlhood at the crossroads of history and social class.

Manguso will be chatting with Makenna Goodman, the Vermont-based author.

Makenna Goodman is the author of The Shame, which has been named a Harvard Review Favorite Book of 2020, White Review Recommended Read, Refinery29 Best New Book, Literary Hub Recommended Read, Bustle Most Awaited Book, a Boston.com Book Club Pick, and more . Goodman is a former editor of books on agriculture and food, whose publications include the intersection of land stewardship and capitalism.

Literary Cocktail Hour is free and open to the public. Sign up at bit.ly/LitCocktail22.