All She Wrote Presents: WORK TO DO Book Launch

Join us and our friends from New Leaf Espresso as we celebrate the release of Work To Do by Jules Wernersbach on Wednesday, May 20th at 6:30 pm featuring the author in conversation with owner Christina, as they discuss this funny illuminating, funny, important workplace novel crossed with a soap opera, offering plenty of food for thought.

"Inclusivity" isn't just a buzzword to us. We make every effort to ensure our space and events are accessible to and for everyone. If you or someone in your party needs accommodations, please email us at info@allshewrotebooks.com.

About the Book

Eleanor and Meg founded Guadalupe Street Co-op in the early 1980s. Together, they envisioned an idyllic grocery store owned by its workers and customers. But after only a year, Meg bolted, leaving Eleanor with a floundering business and an angry, unhealing wound. Forty years later, Guadalupe Street Co-op is an iconic Austin business with a loyal customer base, an antiquated business model, and a disgruntled staff. Unfolding over the course of a single week during Texas hurricane season, Work to Do pings between the co-op’s first year and present day, as the unionization bid reaches fever pitch. Who owns the grocery store? And who has a right to its future? Will the workers ever be paid enough to buy the organic groceries they shelve?

When Eleanor founded Guadalupe Street Co-op in the early 1980s, she was in her mid-twenties and madly in love with her girlfriend, Meg. Together, they envisioned an idyllic grocery store owned by its workers and customers.

Forty years later, Guadalupe Street Co-op is an iconic Austin business with a loyal customer base, an antiquated business model, and a disgruntled staff. Roz, one of the store’s senior managers, is too caught up stalking her ex-wife online to notice that her girlfriend, Molly, is plotting with her coworkers to unionize. Roz also doesn’t see that Molly is not-so-secretly in a situationship with Randy, the dairy manager leading their collective.

Unfolding over the course of a single week during Texas hurricane season, Work to Do pings between the co-op’s first year and present day, as the unionization bid reaches fever pitch. The wind howls, the power goes out, and water creeps through the front door as questions of who owns the grocery store and who has a right to its future are posed. And will the workers ever be paid enough to buy the organic groceries they shelve?

About the Author

Jules Wernersbach is founder of Hive Mind Books, a queer independent bookstore in Bushwick, Brooklyn. They are coauthor of Vegan Survival Guide to Austin and their writing has appeared in, among others, Heavy Feather Review and Bennington Review. Wernersbach lives in Brooklyn, New York.