Join McNally Jackson, Belletrist, and the South Street Seaport Museum for an evening of maritime-inspired festivities aboard the tall ship Wavertree, as we raise a glass to two decades of Samantha Hunt's cult classic The Seas.

Following a teenage girl who believes she's a mermaid, The Seas "blurred the lines between reality and fairy tale, hope and delusion, sanity and madness" and predated our contemporary wave of surreal fiction by writers like Melissa Broder, Marie Helene Bertino, Yasmin Zaher, and Ottessa Moshfegh. In a conversation moderated by Belletrist's Karah Preiss, Samantha Hunt and Alexandra Auder will discuss the novel's core love story and flexible definition of reality, but also: mermaids, girlhood, identity, and slimy things. 

All tickets include a drink voucher. 

Samantha Hunt is the author of four books of fiction, including The Seas and The Dark Dark. She is also the author of The Unwritten Book, a collection of essays about death and literature. Hunt is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her work has been translated into thirteen languages.

Alexandra Auder is a writer and actor. Her memoir, Don’t Call Me Home, is about growing up in the Chelsea Hotel with a crazy mom. She leads an online weekly writing group through Substack.

Karah Preiss is a creative producer living in New York City. She cofounded Belletrist book club with actress Emma Roberts, along with Belletrist Productions, a TV and film production company.