Sometimes I am boggled by the gallery of souls I’ve known. By the lore. The wild history, unsung. People crowd in and talk to me in dreams. People who died or disappeared or whose connection to my own life makes no logical sense, but exists, as strong as ever, in a past that seeps and stains instead of fading. The first time I took Ambien, a drug that makes some people sleep-fix sandwiches and sleepwalk on broken glass, I felt as if everyone I’d ever known were gathered around, not unpleasantly. It was a party and had a warm reunion feel to it. We were all there.

But sometimes the million stories I’ve got and the million people I’ve known pelt the roof of my internal world like a hailstorm. — Rachel Kushner*

A series of online events:

On Tuesday, Kushner will join Hal Foster to talk about her new book of essays The Hard Crowd. The following day she will join Dana Spiotta in conversation. And a week after that, Kim Gordon will sit down with the author.

RACHEL KUSHNER and HAL FOSTER—THE HARD CROWD

London Review 

Tuesday, April 6.

11 am on the West Coast, 2 pm East Coast, 6 pm London, 7 pm Paris.

RACHEL KUSHNER and DANA SPIOTTA IN CONVERSATION

City Lights 

Wednesday, April 7.

6 pm on the West Coast, 9 pm East Coast.

RACHEL KUSHNER with KIM GORDON

Skylight Books

Wednesday, April 14.

6:30 pm on the West Coast, 9:30 pm East Coast.

*Rachel Kushner, The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000–2020 (New York: Scribner, 2021). Text © Rachel Kushner, courtesy of the author and Scribner.

From top: Rachel Kushner, photograph by Chloe Aftel; Rachel Kushner, The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000–2020. Images courtesy and © the author and Scribner.