About —

In the vein of Rachel Cusk, Han Kang, and Clarice Lispector, “Hothouse Bloom” follows a young woman who renounces her painting career and all her human relationships to become one with her late grandfather’s apple orchard.

A Cappella Books welcomes author and musician Austyn Wohlers to Commune in honor of her debut novel, “Hothouse Bloom.” Wohlers will appear in conversation with multimedia artist, writer and director A.V. Tapia.

The program is presented in partnership with Atlanta-based record label Geographic North and will feature a special guest DJ set following the author talk.

This event is free and open to the public. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

About the Book

Anna arrives at the orchard with the intention to abjure social life, deverbalize her experience, and adjust her consciousness to the rhythms of the trees. She succeeds, for a time, until the arrival of her old friend Jan, nomadic and lively and at work on a book about the painter Charles Burchfield. Alarmed by her isolation and declining health, he tries to get her painting again, while Anna is determined to show him the orchard as she sees it.

As the harvest approaches, the outside world descends in the form of pickers, contractors, neighbors, and pomologists. Anna realizes that the only way back to her idyllic life is to turn a profit. It becomes an obsession, much like her former in the way it consumes her, the way an apple oxidizes, might rot.

"Hothouse Bloom" is a millennial pastoral, both painterly and critical in its ideas about art, permaculture, subjectivity, and the natural world.

About the Author

Austyn Wohlers was born in Atlanta in 1996. Her other writing has appeared in The Baffler, The Massachusetts Review, Guernica, and elsewhere. She is also a musician, releasing music alone and with the band Tomato Flower. “Hothouse Bloom” is her first book.

About the Conversation Partner

A.V. Tapia is a multimedia artist, writer and former urban farmer. She has directed music videos for Deerhunter, Preoccupations, Pallas, and Austyn Wohlers, and contributed animations for the band Palm. Also a musician, her previous musical projects include four-piece rock bands, an experimental electronic pop duo, and solo noise performance. She reads, writes, and goes outside every day.