Miranda July and Elif Batuman in Conversation

Join Pioneer Works and McNally Jackson Books for the official paperback launch of Miranda July’s bestselling novel, All Fours—July’s only book event in New York this year.

In All Fours, a semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from Los Angeles to New York. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, checks into a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in an entirely different quest for freedom. Part absurdist comedy, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a 45-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. And, per the New York Times, the book became “the talk of every group text.”

July will be in conversation with Elif Batuman, a fellow master of comic fiction, to discuss the book’s genesis and success, as well as the limits and joys of the novel as a form.

This special launch event, co-presented by Pioneer Works and McNally Jackson Books, will feature a conversation between July and Batuman, with an introduction by Sarah McNally. Each ticket includes a signed paperback copy of All Fours and a limited-edition McNally Jackson tote bag.

Miranda July is a writer, filmmaker, and artist. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and one of TIME magazine’s “100 most influential people of 2025,” she is the New York Times bestselling author of two novels, All Fours and The First Bad Man, and one story collection, No One Belongs Here More Than You. All Fours was named a finalist for the National Book Award, the Women's Prize, and the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Harper’s, and The New Yorker. She lives in Los Angeles.

Elif Batuman’s first novel, The Idiot, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Its sequel, Either/Or was published in 2022. She is also the author of The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, which was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. She has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2010.

This program is part of PW Broadcast's Author Talks, a series highlighting authors and thinkers across disciplines.

Pioneer Works Broadcast is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, bridging the two cultures of science and the arts.