Writers On A New England Stage Returns In-Person With Author Mona Awad in September

Acclaimed author Mona Awad comes to The Music Hall as part of the Writers on a New England Stage series on Thursday, September 2, appearing before a live audience. She will discuss her highly anticipated new book, ALL'S WELL, a potent and subversive novel about a theater professor who is convinced staging Shakespeare's most maligned play will remedy all that ails her, but at a cost. The Music Hall will welcome back community members and book lovers in-person for the first live Writers on a New England Stage event since January 2020.

The 7pm event includes an author presentation followed by an onstage interview with Peter Biello, host of New Hampshire Public Radio's broadcast of the afternoon news magazine All Things Considered.

"After many dreary days for all of us during this pandemic, I'm eager to connect with people in person and return to the physical stage to discuss the theatrical world and the way we experience and process pain as Awad describes in powerful detail in this dark, funny novel," said Biello.

Miranda Fitch's life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating, chronic back pain; a failed marriage; and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now she's on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, the play that promised, and cost, her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hell-bent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.

That's when she meets three strange benefactors who have an eerie knowledge of Miranda's past and a tantalizing promise for her future: one where the show goes on, her rebellious students get what's coming to them, and the invisible, doubted pain that's kept her from the spotlight is made known.

With prose Margaret Atwood has described as "no punches pulled, no hilarities dodged...genius," Mona Awad has concocted her most potent, subversive novel yet. All's Well is the story of a woman at her breaking point and a formidable, piercingly funny indictment of our collective refusal to witness and believe female pain.

Mona Awad is the author of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl and Bunny, named a Best Book of 2019 by Time, Vogue, and The New York Public Library, a finalist for the New England Book Award. Bunny is currently in development as an AMC series, written by Megan Mostyn-Brown. She has published work in The New York Times Magazine, Time, VICE, Electric Literature, McSweeney's, and elsewhere.

Tickets for Writers on a New England Stage: Mona Awad with ALL'S WELL on Thursday, September 2, at 7pm are $13.75. For each 1-2 tickets sold, the purchase of a book voucher (ALL'S WELL, $27 hardcover) is required. Vouchers can be redeemed on the event night for signed copies of ALL'S WELL. Packages can be purchased online at TheMusicHall.org, over the phone at 603.436.2400, or in person at the B2W Box Office at the Historic Theater, 28 Chestnut Street.