Author Event: Free Girls by Kristen McCallum in Conversation with Jennifer Baker
Join Kristen McCallum in conversation with fellow YA author, Jennifer Baker on Friday, July 17th at 6:30 pm to discuss Kristen's debut novel, Free Girls at Gladys Books and Wine.
Tickets are available now:
🎟 📕$22 includes entry and an autographed copy of Free Girls.
🎟 💳 $10 entry includes a Gladys Books & Wine Gift Card.
🆓 Free admission: welcome to Gladys.
About Free Girls:
Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Cooper is back after twelve months at Guiding Hearts Home for Troubled Girls, and nothing is the way it was. Her mom has remarried and now there’s a big new house, a shiny new family, and a fancy new school. Jas feels completely out of place, and things only get more complicated when her mom insists that her “fresh start” include hiding the truth of where she’s been and cutting off people from her past.
As Jas settles into her new life bonding with her seemingly perfect stepsister, making a close-knit group of besties, and maybe even falling for the cute girl in class, it starts to feel like her second chance might actually be real.
But when a friend from the detention center reaches out to reconnect, Jas worries that everything she’s built could fall apart. How long can she keep her past a secret? And how many times can she spin the truth before she forgets who she really is?
About Kristen McCallum:
Kristen McCallum received her MA in English from The University at Albany-SUNY. A writer and creative strategist from Mount Vernon, NY, she credits growing up with the adventures of her Jamaican family as the beginning of her fascination with stories and the ways they could be shared. The founder of SafeWordSociety, an initiative that highlighted the depth and beauty of lived experiences in historically-marginalized communities, Kristen has consulted for The Obama Foundation and Peoplmovr, among others. Free Girls is her debut novel.
About Jennifer Baker:
Jennifer Baker is an author, editor, writing instructor, and creator of the Minorities in Publishing podcast. She’s been a recipient of NYSCA/NYFA and Queens Council on the Arts grants, a 2024 Axinn Writing Award, and was named the Publishers Weekly Star Watch SuperStar in 2019. She is the author of Forgive Me Not (2023), a 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, an NYPL 2023 Best Book for Teens, and 2023 Best of the Best by the BCALA, and the editor of Everyday People: The Color of Life–A Short Story Anthology (2018). Her website is: JenniferNBaker.com.