Rachel Pastan — We're So Lucky to Live Here - with Matthew Klam — at Conn Ave
Rachel Pastan discusses *We’re So Lucky to Live Here*, a novel about grief, family, housing affordability, and the healing potential of art. The story follows 27-year-old theater director Gwen Rivlin, who returns to the large, aging house where she and her mother grew up after her mother’s unexpected death. Although Gwen hopes to remain there, she faces financial and suburban pressures, single-family zoning rules, and opposition from neighbors.
As a way to process her grief and help her changing community confront its housing tensions, Gwen stages Chekhov’s *The Cherry Orchard* in the home’s turret. She assembles a cast from friends, coffee-shop colleagues, and local residents, including the mother of her estranged best friend. The temporary production helps Gwen repair old relationships, reconsider her difficult bond with her mother, and create a new, unconventional family.
Pastan will appear in conversation with writer Matthew Klam.
When: Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Showtimes: 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, 5015 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008
Category: Fiction & Poetry
Participants: Rachel Pastan, in conversation with Matthew Klam
Rachel Pastan: Pastan is the author of *In the Field*, a novel based on Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Barbara McClintock that received the National Book Foundation’s inaugural Science + Literature award in 2022. Her other novels are *Alena*, *Lady of the Snakes*, and *This Side of Married*. She is the literary director of Celia Bookshop in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and formerly chaired Swarthmore’s housing affordability task force.
Matthew Klam: Klam is a Guggenheim Fellow and the recipient of a Robert Bingham/PEN Award and a Whiting Writer’s Award, as well as recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts. His books include *Sam the Cat and Other Stories*, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year in first fiction, and *Who Is Rich?*, a notable selection of *The New York Times* and *The Washington Post* and a nominee for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. His writing has appeared in *The New Yorker*, *Harper’s Magazine*, *Esquire*, *GQ*, and *The New York Times Magazine*. He teaches at Stony Brook University and in Washington, DC’s New Directions Program, and has also taught creative writing at Johns Hopkins University, St. Albans School, American University, and Stockholm University.
Tickets: Free admission with first-come, first-served seating.
Accessibility: To request accommodations or ask about accessibility, email events@politics-prose.com. The venue recommends making requests ideally one week before the event, though it will try to accommodate requests made up to the event.
Related book: *We’re So Lucky to Live Here* is available for preorder as a $28 hardcover, with a stated publication date of September 15, 2026.