Shasta Grant — When We Were Feral - with Chloe Yelena Miller — at Conn Ave

On Friday, August 14, 2026, Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW will host author Shasta Grant for an evening centered on her novel *When We Were Feral*. Grant will appear in conversation with poet and essayist Chloe Yelena Miller, who lives in Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public, with seating available on a first come, first served basis.

The novel tells the story of thirteen-year-old Maggie, who lives in a trailer on the edge of a rural New Hampshire town. Her brother barely speaks, her father works double shifts at the gun factory, and her mother has disappeared without a trace. Maggie seeks comfort in the warmth of her best friend Sarah’s seemingly perfect family, but when a classmate’s mother also goes missing, Maggie and the other girls become drawn to Erin, the daughter left behind. Determined to understand what makes mothers vanish, they search the woods and abandoned backroads for answers. A charged encounter with older boys changes their path and forces them to question everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other. Set in the early 1990s, the book is a haunting coming-of-age story about friendship, longing, and the dangerous territory between girlhood and adulthood, and it suggests that the wilderness the girls fear most is not outside them but within.

Shasta Grant grew up in New Hampshire and now lives in Indianapolis. She is an Aspen Words Emerging Writer Fellow and a winner of the Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest, and she has held writing residencies at Hedgebrook and The Kerouac Project. She earned an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and is the author of *Gather Us Up and Bring Us Home*, with stories and essays appearing in *cream city review*, *Epiphany*, *wigleaf*, and elsewhere. Chloe Yelena Miller lives in Washington, D.C., and is the author of *Perforated* (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2026), *Viable* (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2021), and *Unrest* (Finishing Line Press, 2013). She holds an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and a BA in Italian language and literature from Smith College, and she has received residencies from Bread Loaf, A Room of Her Own, and Vermont Studio Center as well as three DC Arts and Humanities grants for her writing.

When: Friday, August 14, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Showtimes: One event at 7:00 p.m.; no additional showtimes are listed.

Tickets: Free, with first come, first served seating.

Price: No ticket price is charged for the event; the featured book is available for purchase at $19.95 in paperback.

Lineup: Shasta Grant in conversation with Chloe Yelena Miller.

Run time: Not specified on the event page.

Ages: Not specified.

Venue: Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, 5015 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008.

Accessibility: To request accommodations or ask about accessibility, email events@politics-prose.com, ideally about one week before the event. The bookstore will make an effort to accommodate requests up until the time of the event.

Note: The featured book, *When We Were Feral*, has a paperback price of $19.95, an ISBN of 9781646037384, and a publication date of June 9, 2026, and it is listed as available on the store’s shelves.