Chloe Angyal's 2021 book, Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers is Saving Ballet from Itself (out in paperback July 11), is about the future of ballet and a reckoning with all the forces – racism, sexism, elitism, and more – that endanger that future.

Her 2023 debut novel, Pas de Don't, is a high-heat contemporary romance set in the ballet world and in Chloe's hometown of Sydney, Australia. A forbidden love workplace romance for the post-#MeToo era, it’s Center Stage meets Under the Tuscan (well, Sydney) Sun, with a dash of First Wives Club.

Most bookstores would only feature one of those very different books at a time, but not this one! We are large, we contain multitudes, and our events manager, Kate, has been a fan of Chloe's since they served together in the feminist blog trenches circa 2009. Kate will join Chloe in a conversation about ballet, bodies, race, gender, class, and writing sex scenes you know your parents will read.

Please RSVP here!

Chloe Angyal, Ph.D., is an editor at Vice News and a scholar of popular culture who wrote her dissertation on gender, sex, and power in romantic comedies. She lives in Iowa City with her spouse, and you will NOT BELIEVE their meet-cute story, which Kate will insist she tell you.

Kate Harding is an author of feminist nonfiction, including Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture. She lives in Rogers Park and is the new full-time Events Manager at Bookends & Beginnings.