One Author, One Kirkwood
One Author, One Kirkwood is a yearly community read for the people throughout our St. Louis community. All events are free and open to the public.
Limited quantities of Kashana Cauley’s latest book, “The Payback,” will be available free to attendees on a first come, first serve basis.
Supported by the Edward Chase Garvey Memorial Foundation.
Kashana Cauley
Kashana Cauley is the author of the novel THE PAYBACK, which was published by Atria Books in July 2025. It was named an NPR and Electric Literature Best Book of the Year. It was also named a best book of Summer 2025 by many outlets, including the Boston Globe, Vanity Fair, and Publisher’s Weekly, as well as an NYT Editor’s Choice.
She is also the author of THE SURVIVALISTS, which was published in January 2023 by Soft Skull Press, and named a best book of 2023 by the BBC, the Today Show, Vogue, and many other outlets. She’s a TV writer who has written for The Great North, Pod Save America on HBO and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and a former contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She has also written for The Atlantic, Esquire, The New Yorker, Pitchfork, and Rolling Stone, among other publications.
Photograph by Mindy Tucker
“The Payback” Highlights The Absurdity and Trauma of Massive Student Debt, Electric Literature, July 2025
Doomsday Comes to Brownstone Brooklyn in Kashana Cauley’s Eerie, Slyly Funny Debut Novel, Vogue, February 2023
In “The Survivalists,” Doomsday Prepping Becomes A Way To Regain Control, NPR Book of the Day, January 2023
The Survivalists is a Doomsday Fever Dream, New York Magazine, January 2023
Kashana Cauley Will Drive an Hour for the Right Yogurt, New York Magazine, January 2023
A Comedy Writer Faces Some Social Anxieties, Kirkus Reviews, January 2023
An Indies Introduce Q&A With Kashana Cauley, American Booksellers Association, December 2022
Upcoming One Author Events
The Payback (2025)
When Jada Williams is relentlessly pursued by the Debt Police, she is left with no choice but to take down her student loan company with the help of two mall coworkers—from the author of the “lethally witty” (The New York Times Book Review) The Survivalists.
Jada Williams is good at judging people by their looks. From across the mall, she can tell not only someone’s inseam and pants size, but exactly what style they need to transform their life. Too bad she’s no longer using this superpower as a wardrobe designer to Hollywood stars, but for minimum wage plus commission at the Glendale mall.
When Jada is fired yet again, she is forced to outrun the newly instated Debt Police who are out for blood. But Jada, like any great antihero, is not going to wait for the cops to come kick her around. With the help of two other debt-burdened mall coworkers, she hatches a plan for revenge. Together the three women plan a heist to erase their student loans forever and get back at the system that promised them everything and then tried to take it back.
The Payback is a razor-sharp and hilarious dissection of race and capitalism from one of the most original and exciting writers at work today.
An NPR and Electric Literature best book of 2025.
A Boston Globe, Tertulia, Bustle, Orange County Register, Publishers Weekly, Vanity Fair and NYT most anticipated novel of Summer 2025.
A NYT Editor’s Choice.
The Survivalists (2023)
A single Black lawyer puts her career and personal moral code at risk when she moves in with her coffee entrepreneur boyfriend and his doomsday-prepping roommates in a novel that’s packed with tension, curiosity, humor, and wit from a writer with serious comedy credentials.
In the wake of her parents’ death, Aretha, a habitually single Black lawyer, has had only one obsession in life—success—until she falls for Aaron, a coffee entrepreneur. Moving into his Brooklyn brownstone to live along with his Hurricane Sandy-traumatized, illegal-gun-stockpiling, optimized-soy-protein-eating, bunker-building roommates, Aretha finds that her dreams of making partner are slipping away, replaced by an underground world, one of selling guns and training for a doomsday that’s maybe just around the corner.
For readers of Victor LaValle’s The Changeling, Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, and Zakiya Harris’s The Other Black Girl, The Survivalists is a darkly humorous novel from a smart and relevant new literary voice that’s packed with tension, curiosity and wit, and unafraid to ask the questions most relevant to a new generation of Americans: Does it make sense to climb the corporate ladder? What exactly are the politics of gun ownership? And in a world where it’s nearly impossible for young people to earn enough money to afford stable housing, what does it take in order to survive?
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize
A Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Ms. Magazine, Inside Hook, Stylecaster, BBC, Kirkus and Today Show Best Book of 2023
A Phenomenal Book Club and Roxane Gay Book Club Selection
An ABA Indies Introduce and Indie Next Pick
A Most Anticipated Book by The Washington Post, Bustle, Vulture, Salon, Oprah Daily, The Millions, and more
Past Years’ Selections
2026 – Kashana Cauley The Payback, The Survivalists
2025 – Steven Rowley Lily & The Octopus, The Celebrants, The Guncle, The Guncle Abroad
2024 – Brenda Slocumb The Violin Conspiracy and Symphony of Secrets
2023 – Morgan Talty Night of the Living Rez
2022 – Diana Abu-Jaber Fencing with the King and Life without a Recipe
Past Years’ Selections
2021 – Brit Bennett The Vanishing Half and The Mothers
2020 – Lisa See The Island of Sea Women, China Dolls, and On Gold Mountain
2019 – Chris Bohjalian The Flight Attendant, The Sandcastle Girls, and Buffalo Soldier
2018- Stephanie Powell Watts No One Is Coming to Save Us
2017- Ariel Lawhon Flight of Dreams
Past Years’ Selections
2016- Laura McHugh Arrowood and Curtis Sittenfeld Eligible
2015- Robin Sloan Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore
2014- Alex George A Good American
2013- Joseph Schuster The Might Have Been
2012- Timothy Schaffert The Coffins of Little Hope
Event Partners
The Novel Neighbor
Women-owned and operated, The Novel Neighbor is an independent bookstore and community space in the Webster Groves neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Opened in 2014 by owner Holland Saltsman, The Novel Neighbor sells new books of all genres, locally made art, and carefully curated gifts for avid readers of all ages.
St. Louis Community College
Established in 1962, St. Louis Community College is the largest community college district in Missouri and one of the largest in the United States. STLCC has four campuses: Florissant Valley, Forest Park, Meramec and Wildwood. The College annually serves more than 50,000 students through credit courses, continuing education, and workforce development programs. For more information about STLCC, visit stlcc.edu.
Kirkwood Human Right Commission
Advises the City Council on ways to: Promote awareness, recreation, employment, legislation, education, accessibility, and participation of and for minority groups, including persons with disabilities; remove any inequalities that pertain to minority groups and the disabled in such areas as housing, recreation, education, employment, law enforcement, services, and accessibility; encourage participation by minority groups and disabled persons in City programs.
CFUH Book Group
Community for Understanding and Hope Book Group: In the quest to transform the Kirkwood area into a prejudice-free community of highly respectful individuals, CFUH initiates ongoing dialogue and social interaction to create an environment of understanding and healing. Monthly meetings held on 3rd Thursday at 7pm at Kirkwood Public Library.
Glendale-Kirkwood Kiwanis
Our aim is to support children in the community through books, scholarships, and other endeavors in Kirkwood and Glendale, MO. A local chapter of KIWANIS.
We Can
The West County Community Action Network (WE CAN) works to impact the education, policing, and voting systems in pursuit of racial equity in our region.
Kirkwood Rotary
Part of a global network of 1.2 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.
City of Kirkwood
Kirkwood was established in 1853 and was the first planned residential commuter suburb west of the Mississippi. Today the City is nine square miles in size and is home to a population of 27,540.
