Doing The Work

Join debut authors Rachel León, Radhika Singh, and Jules Wernersbach at The Bureau for a discussion about using literature as a vehicle to tell stories about the work that is to be done – how to roll up your sleeves, translate practice into prose, and envision (and enact) liberatory futures through writing.

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Rachel León (she/they) is a writer, editor, and social worker, who has worked in child welfare for nearly two decades. She serves as Managing Director for Chicago Review of Books. They are the author of the novel, How We See the Gray.

Radhika Singh lives, writes and teaches in Queens, New York. Her fiction speculates on the presence of magic in this world, the connection to spirit and consciousness, and the power of the people to organize for collective liberation. Her novel Earthly Playing Field connects ongoing People's movements against global imperialism through a queer, Sufi love story. Her novel Weirdly Tuned Antennae, winner of the 2025 Sukenick Prize for Innovative Fiction, is forthcoming from FC2 Press.

Jules Wernersbach is a writer and bookseller in Brooklyn. Their debut novel, Work To Do, released April 7, 2026 from University of Iowa Press. Their short fiction has been published in Bennington Review, Heavy Feather Review, and other journals. They are the author of Vegan Survival Guide to Austin and The Swimming Holes of Texas. Jules is co-founder of Hive Mind Books, a queer independent bookstore and coffee shop in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and the new owner of The Bureau, Manhattan's last queer bookstore.. They have been a bookseller for a long time and also served as literary director of the Texas Book Festival.