“In her debut novel, Gale examines the uncertainty and chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic through the perspective of a young adult desperately trying to piece her life together. . . . Her story is one that will resonate with many readers because they have also lived it.” 

—Booklist

Dr. Kate Gale is Co-Founder and Managing Editor of Red Hen Press, Editor of the Los Angeles Review.  She teaches in the Low Residency MFA program at the University of Nebraska in Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction.

She is the author of seven books of poetry, including The Loneliest Girl, The Goldilocks Zone, Echo Light. Kate has also written six librettos including Rio de Sangre, a libretto for an opera with composer Don Davis, which had its world premiere October 2010 at the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee, WI.

Dr. Gale will be reading from her new novel Under the Neon Sun: 

Unable to afford rent, Mia—a community college student—lives out of her car, cleaning houses of the well-to-do in the LA area to meet her shoestring budget. Then Covid hits. For people living in houses and apartments, with stay-at-home jobs, the pandemic was inconvenient. For Mia and her fellow housekeeper friends—all living in their cars—the pandemic destroys the source of their frugal income. Fortunately, gutsy, funny Mia is a determined survivor. After weeks of cutting her limited spending even further, missing meals along the way, her wealthy employers become desperate for her services again. This time, she's determined not to let them take advantage of her as they have in the past. Her newfound confidence gives her new hope, until she discovers a dead body in a room she was assigned to clean. Sally Rooney meets Elizabeth Strout in this gripping page turner debut novel.

Maria Nazos is a Greek-American poet raised in Athens. Kaveh Akbar chose her work as one of the 2022 Palette Poetry Contest winners. Her poetry, translations, and essays are published in The New Yorker, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. She is the author of “PULSE” (Omnidawn 2026) and the translator of “A Slow Horizon that Breathes” (World Poetry Books, 202)3, a collection of poems from Greek poet Dimitra Kotoula. You can find her at www.marianazos.com.