Michelle Gurule with Tatiana Johnson-Boria: Thank You, John

Brookline Booksmith

Read on for important details for this Brookline Booksmith event.

<h2>Join us at Brookline Booksmith to celebrate the release of <em><em>Thank You, John </em></em>with author Michelle Gurule, in conversation with Tatiana Johnson-Boria.</h2><h2></h2><h2><em><em>Register for the event!</em></em></h2><h3><strong><strong>RSVP </strong></strong>to let us know you're coming! Depending on the volume of responses, an RSVP may be required for entrance to the event. In the event that we reach capacity and have to close RSVPs, there will not be a waiting list.</h3><h3></h3><h2><em><em>Get your copy!</em></em></h2><h3>EVENT ATTENDEES: Preorder your copy of <em><em>Thank You, John</em></em><em><em> </em></em>through this page. All preordered copies will come with a sticker. Books will also be available for purchase at the event. Books can be picked up 30 minutes before the event in the event space.</h3><p></p><h3>CAN'T MAKE IT TO THE EVENT? Preorder the book here to have it signed, and choose to have it held for pickup or shipped from the store!</h3><h3>Book orders are processed for pickup or shipping after ticket sales have closed.</h3><p></p><h2><em><em>Event accessibility</em></em></h2><ul><li>This event will take place at street level.</li><li>If possible, events are livestreamed. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/brooklinebooksmith" title="https://www.youtube.com/brooklinebooksmith" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Check out our store YouTube channel</a> for livestream updates.</li><li>ASL interpretation may be provided (based on the availability of interpreters) but must be requested at least 2 weeks in advance of the event.</li><li><strong><strong>Please email us at ticketing@brooklinebooksmith.com as soon as possible if you require ASL interpretation, guaranteed seating, or other accommodations.</strong></strong> Seats are limited.We will do our best to serve your needs!</li></ul><h3></h3>

<h2><em><em>Thank You, John</em></em></h2><p><em><strong><strong>Sex sells, but what can it buy?</strong></strong></em><strong><strong> </strong></strong></p><p><em><em>Thank You, John</em></em> is Best American Essays Notable Michelle Gurule’s debut memoir: a heartfelt, laugh-out-loud tragi-comedy of errors based on her time spent as an inexperienced sugarbaby in 2010s Denver. </p><p>Michelle, a queer, wanna-be writer exasperated by student loans, bad teeth, and the poor decisions of her loveable sitcom-worthy family, believes a sugar daddy is written in her destiny as firmly as she believes her idol, Alanis Morissette, holds the musical blueprint to the life she desires most. </p><p>With a salt-of-the-earth Chicano father who's convinced aliens will eventually rule the world, a white mother who maxes out her credit cards on fast food, and a sugar-hyped 7-year-old nephew, Michelle diagnoses herself as self-parentified with a core mistrust in the world’s unreliability. Left to her own devices and barely making ends meet, she turns to the world of stripping until her chance for financial freedom arrives in the form of John, a lonely older man who offers her a weekly pile of cash for lively conversation and sex. She will keep her family, and only her family, availed of all the gritty details. </p><p>Grateful and convinced by the immediate improvement money makes in her life, sugaring takes the role of any other exploitative job in America– the physical wear and tear, competition between colleagues, the crossed personal boundaries, dangerous power imbalances, and the reliance on hierarchy to keep only the rich and powerful rich and powerful—it’s just a lot more intimate. A worthy sacrifice, right? </p><p>Looking back at her time as a 24-year-old stripper and sugarbaby, struggling to pull herself–and her entire family–out of poverty, Gurule grins and bears it all in a tragi-comedy of errors: heartbreak, complete social isolation and self-denial, glares at The Cheesecake Factory, cringey sex, and scheme after scheme for a better life with everything money can buy.</p><p><strong><strong>Michelle Gurule </strong></strong>(she/her) is a writer and educator based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her creative work, which explores the complexities of sex work, class, power and Michelle’s intersectional identity as a queer, mixed-ethnicity (white / Chicana) woman, has appeared in <em><em>The Offing</em></em>, <em><em>Joyland</em></em>, <em><em>StoryQuarterly</em></em>, <em><em>Drunk Monkeys</em></em>, <em><em>Homology</em></em>, and <em><em>Alien</em></em>. In 2021, her essay, “Exit Route,” won <em><em>StoryQuarterly</em></em>’s Nonfiction Prize, judged by T Kira Madden. She currently teaches writing at Arizona State University as well as The University of Colorado, Boulder. She lives in New Mexico with her partner Daisy.</p><p><strong><strong>Tatiana Johnson-Boria</strong></strong> (she/her) is the author of <em><em>Nocturne in Joy</em></em> (2023), winner of the 2024 Julia Ward Howe Book Prize in Poetry. As an educator, artist, facilitator, and mother; she uses her writing practice to dismantle racism, reckon with trauma, cultivate healing, and to explore the complex magic of mothering. She has received fellowships and awards from Tin House, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, MacDowell, the Brother Thomas Fellowship, and St. Botolph Club Foundation, among others. Tatiana is a 2017 Pushcart Prize nominee, teaches at GrubStreet, and has been on faculty at Emerson College, among other institutions. Her work appears or is forthcoming in <em><em>The Academy of American Poets</em></em>, <em><em>Ploughshares</em></em>, <em><em>Kenyon Review Online</em></em>, and more. She is represented by Lauren Scovel at Laura Gross Literary.</p><p></p><h2>About Brookline Booksmith</h2><p>Brookline Booksmith, thriving in the heart of Coolidge Corner in Brookline, Massachusetts, since 1961, is one of New England’s premier independent bookstores. We offer a vast selection of books, ranging from current bestsellers to the most eclectic titles. We are also known for our beautiful and inspired gifts. Customers buy and sell gently used books in our treasured Used Book Cellar and enjoy our bountiful bargain book selection. We host award-winning events series (including our groundbreaking Transnational Literature Series), offering more than 300 author talks, community conversations, and book clubs annually. Find more at <a href="http://brooklinebooksmith.com" title="http://brooklinebooksmith.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">brooklinebooksmith.com</a>!</p>