A spelling bee with a twist! Root on your new favorite authors — Lisa Ko, Hyeseung Song, Amelia Possanza, Aaron Jacobs, Isle McElroy, and Kosoko Jackson — as they try to spell literary-inspired words and give it a go yourself. As authors strike out, we’ll call up audience members to beat those still standing for the chance to win the Grand Prize! Hive Mind Books will be there with a pop-up book fair of curated reads as well as the featured authors’ books. Hosted by Kerri Schlottman, Julie Wernersbach, and Jeff Waxman. THIS IS AN OFFICIAL 2024 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL BOOKEND EVENT. FEATURED AUTHORS <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://lisa-ko.com/">Lisa Ko</a> is the author of Memory Piece and the nationally bestselling novel The Leavers, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Ko’s short fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and her essays and nonfiction have been published in The New York Times and The Believer.&nbsp; <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://hyeseungsong.com/">Hyeseung Song</a> is a first-generation Korean American painter and the author of Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl (Simon &amp; Schuster). She lives in Brooklyn and upstate New York. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.ameliapossanza.com/">Amelia Possanza</a> (she/her) is the debut author of Lesbian Love Story: A Memoir in Archives, which was named a Best Book of 2023 by NPR, Shelf Awareness, and Publishers Weekly, and received the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, LitHub, Electric Literature, The Millions, and NPR’s Invisibilia. Possanza is also a book publicist and teaches creative writing to high schoolers through Lambda Literary’s Writers in School program.&nbsp; <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://aaronjacobswrites.com/">Aaron Jacobs</a> is the author of the novels Time Will Break the World and The Abundant Life. His short stories and essays have appeared in Tin House, Alaska Quarterly Review, Crime Reads, Necessary Fiction, Litt, and elsewhere. He lives mostly in the Catskills with his wife and dog. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.islemcelroy.com/">Isle McElroy</a> is the author of the novels The Atmospherians and People Collide, which was named a best book of 2023 by Vogue, NPR, Them, and the New York Times Critics. Abbi Jacobson is currently adapting the book for TV.&nbsp; <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://kosokojackson.com/">Kosoko Jackson</a> was born and raised in the DC Metro Area, and has worked in digital communications for the past five years. He is a USA TODAY bestselling author and Lambda Award winning author of horror and adult romance. He lives in the NYC area with his dog Artemis.&nbsp; EVENT HOSTS Kerri Schlottman is a writer of literary fiction novels, most recently Tell Me One Thing, which was a 2024 PenCraft Fiction Award Winner, a 2023 American Book Fest Best Literary Fiction Book Finalist, and a Shelf Awareness Best Book This Week. Julie Wernersbach is a writer and bookseller living in Brooklyn. She is the owner and co-founder of Hive Mind Books, a traveling independent bookstore that hosts pop-up book and author events in Brooklyn and Jersey City. Jeff Waxman (he/him) has spent half his life working in books and magazines in Chicago and New York. Now he organizes Philadelphia's mutual aid communities to expand access to food and harm reduction. And books.