Joshua Ferris
Best-Selling Author
The characters in Joshua Ferris’s funny and wise debut novel Then We Came to the End understand the pain of coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way (through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks). The ad agency that he brilliantly depicts is family at its strangest and best. As one colleague after another is laid off, everyone strikes their best business-as-usual pose, pretending to make headway on the mysterious pro bono ad campaign that is their only remaining “work.” Meanwhile tempers flare, office furniture disappears, and the survivors parse their bosses’ decisions in ever-more-paranoid sessions at the nearest bar.
With a demon’s eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life’s strangest environment —the one we pretend is normal five days a week.
Ferris’ second novel, The Unnamed is a dazzling novel about a marriage and a family and the unseen forces of nature and desire that seem to threaten them both. It is the heartbreaking story of a life taken for granted and what happens when that life is abruptly and irrevocably taken away.
Tim Farnsworth is a handsome, healthy man, aging with the grace of a matinee idol. His wife, Jane, still loves him, and, for all its quiet trials, their marriage is stronger than most. Despite long hours at the office, Tim remains passionate about his work, and his partnership at a prestigious Manhattan law firm means that the work he does is important. Even as his daughter, Becka, retreats behind her guitar, her dreadlocks, and her puppy fat, he offers her every one of a father’s honest lies about her being the most beautiful girl in the world.
Twice in the past, Tim has battled a bizarre, inexplicable illness. Thankfully, that mysterious disease is far behind him . . . until the day it returns. Tim Farnsworth loves his wife, his family, his work, his life. He loves his home. And then one day he stands up and walks out. And keeps walking.
At the podium, Ferris explores how his experiences at an ad agency and working in an office informed the creative process of writing his first novel. He discusses whether success eases the writing process or adds to the pressure, and shares whether he misses coworkers, coffee machines, and conference rooms —or not.
He is the perfect speaker for libraries, festivals, workshops, universities, and any audience looking to be inspired to turn their real life into fiction, or to find the art, joy, fun, and beauty in everyday life.
Interested in booking Joshua Ferris to speak at your next event?
With a demon’s eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life’s strangest environment —the one we pretend is normal five days a week.
Ferris’ second novel, The Unnamed is a dazzling novel about a marriage and a family and the unseen forces of nature and desire that seem to threaten them both. It is the heartbreaking story of a life taken for granted and what happens when that life is abruptly and irrevocably taken away.
Tim Farnsworth is a handsome, healthy man, aging with the grace of a matinee idol. His wife, Jane, still loves him, and, for all its quiet trials, their marriage is stronger than most. Despite long hours at the office, Tim remains passionate about his work, and his partnership at a prestigious Manhattan law firm means that the work he does is important. Even as his daughter, Becka, retreats behind her guitar, her dreadlocks, and her puppy fat, he offers her every one of a father’s honest lies about her being the most beautiful girl in the world.
Twice in the past, Tim has battled a bizarre, inexplicable illness. Thankfully, that mysterious disease is far behind him . . . until the day it returns. Tim Farnsworth loves his wife, his family, his work, his life. He loves his home. And then one day he stands up and walks out. And keeps walking.
At the podium, Ferris explores how his experiences at an ad agency and working in an office informed the creative process of writing his first novel. He discusses whether success eases the writing process or adds to the pressure, and shares whether he misses coworkers, coffee machines, and conference rooms —or not.
He is the perfect speaker for libraries, festivals, workshops, universities, and any audience looking to be inspired to turn their real life into fiction, or to find the art, joy, fun, and beauty in everyday life.
Interested in booking Joshua Ferris to speak at your next event?
Contact Hachette Speakers Bureau.
866.376.6591
info@hachettespeakersbureau.com
- Then We Came to the End: Working in An Office
- The Unnamed: Love and Loss in the Face of Everyday Devastation
