Tickets
General Ticket: $25
Member Ticket: $22
“It’s October in New Orleans, and all evenings are hallowed.” – Station of the Birds
Betsy Sussler, BOMB Magazine Founder and natural storyteller, creates magic at The Church with her newly released debut novel Station of the Birds (January 2026, Spuyten Duyvil Publishing). This unique evening sees live music, a live reading with the author and illuminating discussion between Sussler and The Church co-founder April Gornik, plus a thoughtful Q&A with the audience, followed by a book signing. A warm thank you to Real East End Brass helping us to kick off the program with a special musical performance designed to deepen our connection to the landscape of the novel.
Set in the bayous, swamps, and drug dens of the Louisiana backcountry and New Orleans, Station of the Birds is a thrilling family saga that takes readers through a physical landscape and a psychological one.
Following the story of Daryl Munroe, a well-educated, privileged, and disinherited prodigal son, readers are led to Munroe’s hometown in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Swamp where he is hell bent on intimidating his father by setting up an illegal smuggling business. He joins forces with his estranged childhood friend, Michael Duvet, the son of a local jazz musician and together they begin a mysterious quest in an area steeped in myth & generational lore and entrenched by barriers of class and race. Part fever dream, part cautionary tale, Station of the Birds spins a narrative about fathers and sons, addiction’s hollow banging at the gate, and the ritual sacrifices rooted in agrarian culture.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR & THE BAND
BETSY SUSSLER
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BETSY SUSSLER attended Newcomb, the women’s college of Tulane University in New Orleans and graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute with a BFA in 1974. She co-founded BOMB Magazine in 1981 to publish conversations between artists and writers that reflected the way they spoke about the work among themselves and has been its Editor in Chief ever since. Sussler has edited five anthologies: BOMB Interviews, City Lights (1991); BOMB: Speak Art! (1997), Speak Fiction and Poetry! (1998) and Speak Theater and Film! (1999), published by Gordon and Breach; and The Author Interviews (2014) published by Soho Press. This is her first novel, Station of the Birds, written in the late 90s. She lives and works in Brookly, New York with her two felines, Calliope and Woody Ray.
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REAL EAST END BRASS better known as REEB!, is a New Orleans-style brass band made up of musicians and educators based on the East End of Long Island, New York. Best known for blending jazz, funk, and pop music into high-energy, one-of-a-kind performances.