The Visiting Author Series at Petals & Pages Presents: Jesse James Rose

Join author Jesse James Rose as she discusses her debut memoir sorry i keep crying during sex. Books will be available for purchase at the event, or you can preorder by selecting the "general admission + book" ticket at checkout.

A powerful, provocative, and genre-bending literary memoir that grapples with victimhood, recovery, and resilience.

In the before, Jesse James Rose is happy. She has a beautiful boyfriend with melty glacier eyes, she’s on a euphoric journey of gender exploration, and New York City is perfect.

In the after, she’s single, making dinner for her grandfather, and wondering if he’s going to forget her name today. Except, in the before, her first-grade music teacher led her into a dark room to show her something he shouldn’t have. And in the after, she’s finding healing and comfort in coming into her own, even as her grandfather declines.

In the before, she was fine, more or less. But in the after, she has to reckon with whatever the hell restorative justice really, truly means.

Following the aftermath of an assault, and the heartache of caring for a grandfather with Alzheimer’s, sorry i keep crying during sex tells a captivating story of identity, recovery, grief, survivorship, and transness. Through lists, theatrical scripts, flashbacks, and Grindr DMs, Jesse James Rose’s genre-defying memoir is raw and hysterically funny, and takes readers on the wild ride of overcoming the struggles of a trans twentysomething.

About the author: Jesse James Rose (she/they) is a transgender actor, writer, and content creator based in New York City. Every president who has attacked her in the media has been shot at. Rose holds degrees from NYU in music theatre and child and adolescent mental health studies, as well as a certificate in diversity, equity, and inclusion from Cornell University. As an actress, Rose made queer theater history as the youngest openly nonbinary professional performer to take on the title role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The same year they co-starred in the indie film Adelphe, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. They are perhaps most known as a transgender activist attacked by Donald Trump, as covered by Rolling Stone and THEM. Their work lives largely on social media, where Rose writes about gender, queerness, survivorship, mental health, their feelings, and their exes on Instagram & TikTok (@jamesissmiling), reaching a community of more than 540,000 people.