Author Sash Bischoff discusses her debut novel “Sweet Fury” at the American Writers Museum with fellow author Kathleen Rooney. This conversation took place February 12, 2025 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum.

For a full list of upcoming events with the American Writers Museum, click here: https://americanwritersmuseum.org/cal…

About “Sweet Fury”

When a beloved actress is cast in a feminist adaptation of a Fitzgerald classic, she finds herself the victim in a deadly game of revenge in which everyone, on screen and off, is playing a part.

“Cunningly ambitious, twisty, and immersive, it seduces you into a story so compelling that you aren’t ready for the sucker-punch of its deeper truths. This is a hell of a debut.” —Rebecca Makkai

Lila Crayne is America’s sweetheart: she’s generous and kind, gorgeous and magnetic. She and her fiancé, visionary filmmaker Kurt Royall, have settled into a stunning new West Village apartment and are set to begin filming their feminist adaptation of Fitzgerald’s “Tender Is the Night.”

To prepare for the leading role, Lila begins working with charming and accomplished therapist Jonah Gabriel to dig into the trauma of her past. Soon, Lila’s impeccably manicured life begins to unravel on the therapy couch—and Jonah is just the man to pick up the pieces. But everyone has a secret, and no one is quite who they seem.

A twisty, thought-provoking novel of construction and deconstruction in conversation with the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and told through the lens of the film industry, “Sweet Fury” is an incisive and bold critique of America’s deep-rooted misogyny. With this novel, Bischoff examines the narratives we tell ourselves, and what happens when we co-opt others into those stories; and she probes the blurred lines between victim and perpetrator and the true meaning of justice.

Order your copy of “Sweet Fury” here: https://bookshop.org/a/628/9781668043257

SASH BISCHOFF is a writer and theater director. She has written plays that have been developed at theaters throughout the US. As a director, she has worked on Broadway and off. Broadway/National Tours include “Dear Evan Hansen,” “The Visit,” “On the Town,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” and “Shrek.” Sash grew up as an actor and won the National Arts Award (NFAA) for Acting. She currently lives in New York with her husband and their many pets. “Sweet Fury” is her first novel.

KATHLEEN ROONEY is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary work in hybrid genres, as well as a founding member of Poems While You Wait, a collective of poets and their vintage typewriters who compose poetry on demand. Her most recent books include the novels “Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk” and “Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey.” Her poetry collection “Where Are the Snows” won the 2021 X. J. Kennedy Prize and was published by Texas Review Press in fall of 2022. She is a winner of the Ruth Lilly Prize from Poetry magazine and the Adam Morgan Literary Citizen Award from the Chicago Review of Books, and her criticism appears in the New York Times, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Brooklyn Rail, Chicago magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She lives in Chicago with her spouse, the writer Martin Seay, and teaches English and creative writing at DePaul University.

Watch a video recording of the full conversation HERE.