Events


Join Jessica Handler at her upcoming events and appearances. Stay tuned for dates and locations, and don't miss the chance to connect with the author behind "The Magnetic Girl" and other acclaimed works.

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5/8/25
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5/8/2025

My Body, My Book Club (virtual)

on MAY 8th, Join the My Body, My Book club virtual discussion of "The Magnetic Girl." My Body, My Book Club is based in the UK, and aims to connect people and create communities. We read fiction books (with the odd memoir here and there too) that deal with different aspects of how we understand bodily autonomy and exemplify how we can get involved and support each other. Issues such as gender-based violence, racism, homelessness, displacement, abortion, obstetric violence, and the rights of marginalised communities, like the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ groups, are just some of the topics we cover.

6/29/25
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6/29/2025

In conversation with Peter McDade

Join me in conversation with acclaimed author & rock drummer Peter McDade as we discuss his new novel, KING CAL. In the course of one ordinary day, Atlanta fast food worker Calvin loses his girlfriend, his band, and his best friend. Suddenly, everything he had planned to spend the rest of his life doing seems to have flown away. Told with insight, sensitivity, and deep respect for what it really takes to make a life in music, “King Cal” is a coming-of-age novel about a determined young man who starts with little, aims to earn a little more, and has to decide whether success—or even clinging to his dream—is worth the sacrifice.

Award Winning!

The Magnetic Girl

Set in a time of emerging electricity and heightened Spiritualism, "The Magnetic Girl" is an inspired novel about women's quest for political, cultural, and sexual presence.

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FeatureS

From insightful interviews to engaging essays, see how Jessica's work continues to resonate with readers and critics alike.

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Jan 2025

Making Noise: On Learning to Play Drums The Year I Turned Sixty

Articulate. My husband has a twelve-inch-tall action figure of me — I’m serious — about the size of a Barbie doll. She is “fully articulated,” which in action-figure speak means that her arms and legs and head can swivel. When he had this made, he had one made of himself, too. It was a passing fad, a kind of a joke between us.

Another Chicago Magazine
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Nov 2024

The Little Things

Stop what you’re doing, and pay attention to your senses. How your fingers feel on the keyboard, or your feet on the floor. What about sound? Is your playlist going (and what’s on it?) or is that a trash truck grinding away on the street?

Brevity
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Dec 2023

The Muscle For Escape

This is one of those stories you bring out near last call so you’ll never have to go home.

Short Reads
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Mar 2023

Marshall Crenshaw's Someday Someway

Stop what you’re doing right now and cue this baby up. It will only take about three minutes of your time, the length of a standard radio pop hit. Because that’s what it is. A power-pop hit.

March Fadness
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