Author Susan Hayden in Conversation with Music Journalist Steve Hochman About “Now You Are a Missing Person”

Susan Hayden’s lyrical memoir, Now You Are a Missing Person (Moon Tide Press), features a collection of stories and poems exploring how love, grief, and the disappearing landscape of the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles have shaped her life. Join Susan Hayden in Montecito, CA for a reading of Now You Are a Missing Person and a conversation with Steve Hochman at Tecolote Bookshop. The event will take place in person on May 4th at 3pm.

Hayden is best known for her award-winning monthly literary series, Library Girl, which has given a platform and a home to a diverse community of writers and musicians since 2009. Her debut memoir, Now You Are a Missing Person was featured in the Los Angeles Public Library’s “Best of 2023: Fiction and Literature” list. It won the Poetry and Wild Card awards from the Southern California Book Festival, as well as was a finalist in the Zibby Awards 2023 in Best Coming of Middle/Old Age. 

PRAISE FOR NOW YOU ARE A MISSING PERSON:

“A remarkable book with a stunning sense of time and place . . . Now You Are a Missing Person lingers long in your heart, along with the ghosts and heroes of Los Angeles’ recent past. They’re all alive here, in Hayden’s vivid tales of life, loss, and the unexpected return of love just when you needed it most.”

— Cameron Crowe 

“Imbued with the mercurial talents of the trickster and the poet, Susan Hayden weaves threads of verse and prose together for this hybrid memoir spanning her childhood, adolescence and adulthood … We see her flattened by grief, but this book is ultimately a testament that loss is not the end of love—and that in its place, new love, including a newfound self-love, can thrive.”

― Cassandra Lane, author of We Are Bridges

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Susan Hayden is a multigenre writer. Her debut memoir, Now You Are a Missing Person (Moon Tide Press, 2023), a lyrical memoir in poems, stories and fragments, received a starred review from Kirkus. It was named in the Best of 2023 by the Los Angeles Public Library, “the best books of the year as selected by Los Angeles Public Library staff.” Hayden’s book was a Finalist in The Zibby Awards 2023 in the Best Coming of Middle/Old Age category, awarded by Zibby Owens. Her plays have been performed live on KPFK’s Pacifica Performance Showcase and produced across Los Angeles. Her poems and stories have been published in the anthologies Beat Not Beat (Moon Tide Press), The Black Body (Seven Stories Press), Los Angeles In the 1970s/Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine (Rare Bird Books) and elsewhere. Hayden is the creator and producer of Library Girl, a monthly literary series now in its 15th year at Ruskin Group Theatre. In 2015, she was presented with the Artist in the Community/Bruria Finkel Award from the Santa Monica Arts Foundation for her significant contributions to the energetic discourse within Santa Monica’s arts community. Visit Susan Hayden’s website at www.susanhayden.com.

ABOUT STEVE HOCHMAN:

Music journalist Steve Hochman grew up in Santa Barbara. He has covered popular (and unpopular) music for nearly 40 years, including more than two decades at the Los Angeles Times plus regular bylines in Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety and many other publications and serving as music critic for public radio shows on both Los Angeles’ KPCC and San Francisco’s KQED. He’s also the co-author of the recent Melissa Etheridge graphic biography, Heartstrings, and has written liner notes for a wide range of album releases. Currently, he is a lead writer for Spin magazine, New Orleans’ OffBeat and the roots music publication the Bluegrass Situation, eager to share his always-growing passion for music discoveries from across all genres, styles and cultures around the globe.