A conversation to launch the book Astrid Sees All between author Natalie Standiford and Darcey Steinke moderated by The Country Bookshop's Kimberly Daniels Taws.

Get excited to be part of a conversation about the hottest book of the summer. Natalie Standiford's Lower East Side of the 1980's is something she and her friend Darcey are intimately familiar with. Register for free and there will be special prizes for those who join this in-conversation where the conversation will encompass the energy of New York City and the nuances of the writing life.

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Praise for Astrid Sees All"I loved this dark and smart thriller about the East Village in the 1980's, starring a bright but lost young woman who is determined to chase danger and glamour and madness right up to the edge of reason. With shades of both Gatsby and Warhol, Standiford has created a vivid portrait of a seedy, edgy, artsy, and seething New York City that will never exist again. I flew through these pages." - Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and City of Girls

"A new wave coming-of-age story, Astrid Sees All is a blast from the past, taking the reader back to the ratty Bohemia of the Lower East Side of the early '80's, complete with squatters, cold-water sublets, white punks on dope in the trashed bathrooms of trendy clubs, and even a cameo by the king of downtown, Lou Reed. Sharp-eyed and light on her feet, Natalie Standiford is the perfect tour guide for one young woman's leap from the ivied halls of college into another, even more unreal world." -Stewart O'Nan, author of The Speed Queen

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Natalie Standiford was born and raised in Baltimore and studied Russian Language and Literature at Brown. She writes books for adults, children, and teens, and her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Review of Books , and elsewhere. She lives in New York City and plays in several rock bands with other restless writers.Darcey Steinke is the author of the memoir Easter Everywhere and five novels: Sister Golden Hair, Milk, Jesus Saves, Suicide Blonde, and Up Through the Water. Her books have been translated into ten languages, and her nonfiction has appeared widely. Her web story "Blindspot" was a part of the 2000 Whitney Biennial. She has been both a Henry Hoyns and a Stegner Fellow, and a Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi. She has taught at the New School, Columbia University School of the Arts, New York University, Princeton, and the American University of Paris. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn.

This in conversation will be moderated by Kimberly Daniels Taws of The Country Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Southern Pines, North Carolina that is owned by The Pilot Newspaper.