Join Arsenal Pulp Press and Flying Books for the launch of Tara McGuire’s Holden After and Before on Tuesday November 8th from 6:30 to 8:00 pm.

Holden After and Before is a moving meditation on grief. A stunning book that traces Tara McGuire's excavation and documentation of the life path of her son Holden, a graffiti artist who died of an accidental opioid overdose at the age of twenty-one. Beginning with Holden's death and leaping through time and space, McGuire employs fact, investigation, memory, fantasy, and even fabrication in her search for understanding not only of her son's tragic death, but also of his beautiful life. She navigates and writes across the many blank spaces to form a story of discovery and humanity, examining themes of grief, pain, mental illness, trauma, creative expression, identity, and deep, unending love inside just one of the thousands of deaths that have occurred as a result of the opioid crisis.

With poignant honesty and a heart laid bare, Holden After and Before is a beautiful and moving elegy to a son lost to overdose.

Tara McGuire is a former broadcaster whose essays and poetry have appeared on CBC radio, in several magazines, including Geist, The Tyee, and The Globe and Mail. She is a graduate of The Writers Studio at SFU and holds an MFA from The UBC School of Creative Writing. Holden After & Before, a hybrid work in memoir and fiction exploring grief, motherhood, and the overdose crisis (Arsenal Pulp Press, September 2022) is her first book.

Admission is free. All are welcome to attend.

Books will be available for purchase, and, of course, the author will be signing!

Masks are recommended and encouraged but not required.