This event has passed
Emily Doyle - Please Don't Touch the Body
Past event
Featured Book
Please Don't Touch The Body
“A magnificent debut” (Laila Lalami) that explores loneliness and community, religion and repression, and the pleasure and pain of womanhood.
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by Debutiful, Lit Hub, Chicago Review of Books, and Autostraddle
By turns tender and irreverent, the 11 genre-bending stories in Please Don't Touch the Body are thrillingly concerned with the devastation-and power-of being alive today.
In the collection's first story, a Japanese woman finds healing in a secret life as a sex advice columnist after being fetishized by her white husband for decades. In the fourth story, Ronald Reagan is reincarnated as a puppy and must cope with being squeezed, dropped, and controlled by his young, queer owner. And in “Thank You No Thank You,” a young woman grapples with the rules she learned in her religious childhood, the freedoms of her new and more liberal life, and her actual desires as she vacations with her long-term boyfriend.
Together these inventive, emotionally rich stories reveal an incredible new vision and “a writer to watch” (Rita Chang-Eppig).
About This Event
We’re excited to welcome Emily Doyle to Celia Bookshop to celebrate the debut of her short story collection Please Don’t Touch the Body.
Emily’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, The Sun, and elsewhere, and received numerous awards. She is the author of the forthcoming novel Encounter and teaches at UC Riverside.
Emily will discuss her work and the path to her debut with Kat Lewis, a writer of fiction and video games. The conversation will be followed by audience questions and a book signing.
Book + Ticket = $29. Event Ticket Only = $5. Wine and cheese will be served. Visit our website www.celiabookshop.com to purchase tickets.
Featured Author
Emily Doyle
Emily Doyle is the author of the debut collection Please Don’t Touch the Body and her forthcoming debut novel, Encounter. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, the Kenyon Review, the Sun, and elsewhere, and she has received numerous awards, including the Abraham Lincoln Polonsky Endowed Award and the Bread Loaf–Rona Jaffe Foundation Participant Scholarship. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches at UC Riverside.
About the Venue
Celia Bookshop
We are a woman-owned independent bookstore in the heart of Swarthmore offering a curated selection of new books including bestsellers, classics, and a large children's section. Community-centered, Celia is more than a bookstore—it’s a place to connect, explore, and find something you didn’t know you were looking for.
Visit store pageMore at Celia Bookshop
Dog Man Release Party
No school on Tuesday, Nov 3 (Election Day)! Spend it with Dog Man! Preorder the new Dog Man book and pick it up at our release day party. Celebrate with themed games, prizes, and pizza! Ticket + book purchases include a copy of Dog Man: A Sprinkle in Time . This is not a drop-off event. Kids under 3 and adults over 15 get in free! Attending the program across the street at the PAC Center? This event runs during the lunch hour, and a bookseller will walk kids to and from the store.
Author Talk + Q&A with Evan Brooke
Join us for an evening with Evan Brooke, author of Madeline McKnight Signs Off, in conversation with Beyond the Bookends. What begins as an unusual arrangement becomes a moving intergenerational friendship and a story about ambition, loyalty, redemption, and coming of age at any age. In a nod to fly fishing's role in Madeline McKnight Signs Off, there will be a live fly tying demonstration featuring the signature fly from the cover. The event includes an author signing and wine + cheese reception.
November Fiction Book Club: Morning Session
Join fellow readers for a discussion of Naomi Alderman’s The Strangers , a thought-provoking novel that blends literary fiction and speculative storytelling. Share your thoughts, questions, and interpretations as we explore the book together. Led by Rachel Pastan, Literary Director at Celia Bookshop.