The Inaugural Zibby-verse Yearbook

Why shouldn't grown-ups get yearbooks?!

WE DID IT! The school year is over (at least, for my four kids). Hats off to all the families, caregivers, teachers, administrators, bus drivers, and everyone involved in educating our kids. Bravo!

The only thing missing for me now is a capstone to my own academic year. Like, say, a yearbook.

I was one of the photo editors of my high school yearbook. I’d go around the school and snap candids, cover sports events, and capture all the everyday moments. Then, on Saturdays, I’d come into school and hole up in the darkroom, my hands groping in black bags to unspool canisters of film, and then plunge the negatives in chemical baths until images appeared beneath the water like magic. It never got old.

When the yearbooks came out, I would obsessively pore over every page. Actually, I still pore over those pages. Just two days ago, I met a senior from when I was a freshman (this is in 1990, mind you) and pulled out my worn yearbook yet again. Oh yeah. That guy.

(Browse some yearbook photos here.)

The long messages my friends and I wrote each other would slather the shiny pages in bubbly handwriting, cementing memories I absolutely would’ve forgotten. Some references I don’t get when I reread the messages now. Try me again in 20 years.

Yet, when my kids bring home their yearbooks, I flip through them excitedly, but then I feel deflated. Like, why don’t grown-ups get yearbooks? It’s one of those unsung moments knowing, with photo evidence, that you were a part of something. A community. That you wouldn’t be forgotten. That 30 years later, your photos would still be pristine within the pages as you flip through them in the school library with your own kids. That you finished something you set out to do.

So here’s my quick yearbook for us all. Can you find yourself? Comment if yes or if you’ve enjoyed what we’ve produced this year!

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The Inaugural Zibby-verse Yearbook: 2023-2024

To listen to all episodes, click here. To find an author or topic we discussed (ex: grief, Father’s Day, love, motherhood, Kristin Hannah), use the search bar on www.zibbymedia.com. All the episode transcripts and links to listen will come up!!

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The Class of 2024

(Authors interviewed on Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books even if their episodes haven’t come out yet)

September Cohort:

Aparna Nancherla

Safiya Sinclair

John Manuel Arias

Matt Gutman

Carrie Berk

Douglas Brunt

Allison Pataki

Jessica Knoll

Kelly McMasters on Zibby’s Book Club

Lindsey Jacobellis

Davon Loeb

Kerri Maher

Lisa Niver

Sarah Blakely-Cartwright

Kristen Ness

Cindy Chupack

Sarah Cooper

Morgan Baker

Jean Kwok

Laura Numeroff

Brittany Means

Terri Liebenson

Angie Kim

Amanda Peters

Stephanie Kramer

Vanessa Kroll Bennett and Cara Natterson

Danny Pellegrino

October Cohort:

Hannah Stowe

Ali Rosen

Mitch Albom

Jane Ferguson

Rabbi Diana Fersko

Caitlin Moran

Alli Webb

Kristen McGuiness

Caitlin Shetterly

Jacquelyn Mitchard

Einat Natan

Richard Hurowitz

Bradley Tusk

Maria Hummel

Wendy Walker

Sonali Dev

Kim Coleman Foote

Kate Christensen

Kimberly Shannon Murphy

Aomawa Shields

November Cohort:

Barbara Kingsolver and Lily Kingsolver

Sarah Gelman

Stephanie Land

Charles Scribner III

Nancy Jooyoun Kim

Taylor Wolfe

Lea Carpenter

Nita Prose

Dr. Uma Naidoo

Christine Coulson

Elaine Roth

Dara Levan

Alix Strauss

Anna Pitoniak

Beth O’Leary

Alyssa Ages

John Sargent

Miriam Landis

Natalie Franke

December Cohort:

Angela Brown

Aliza Pressman

Kristin Hannah

Laurie Frankel

Rachel Renee Russell

Jamie Varon

Jamie Lee Curtis

Sagit Maier-Schwartz

Michele Norris

Nikki Vargas

James Patterson

Carola Lovering

Rebecca Serle

Roxana Robinson

Jacqueline Alnes

Elle Evans

Katherine Vaz

Emma Noyes

Stefanie Wilder-Taylor

Jonathan Conyers

January Cohort:

Jessica Saunders

Allison Holker Boss

Amy Shoenthal

Sophie Cousens

Megan Nix

Elba Iris Perez

Jenny Hollander

Bess Kalb

Susannah Breslin

Ross Gay

Erica Keswin

Dr. Edith Shiro

Jo Piazza

Jordan Salama

Molly Roden Winter

Carrie Sun

Alex Michaelides

Chris Cander

Meg Kissinger

Elyssa Maxx Goodman

Lissa Soepp

Jennifer Weiner

Lindsay Hameroff

Tia Williams

Uche Blackstock

Amy Lin

Maggie Smith

Kennedy Ryan

James Rhee

Betty Cayouette

February Cohort:

Gina Moffa

Katya Apekina

Claire Bidwell Smith

Jessica Gee

Claire Kilroy

Carys Davies

David Duchovny

Paige Layle

Swan Huntley

Lottie Hazell

Jane Bertch

Anna Quinden

Julie Chavez

Tana French

Sheila Heti

Chelsey Goodan

Carmen Johnson

Joan Collins

Rachelle Unreich

Lisa Selin Davis

Phillips Soo and Maris Pasquale Doran

Admiral James Stavridis and Elliot Ackerman

Katrina Leno

Allison Winn Scotch

Savannah Gunthrie

March Cohort:

Craig Melvin

Julia Alvarez

Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

John E. Schumacher

Estelle Erasmus

Emily Farris

Nick Shaw

Susan Lieu

Neely Alexander

Gretchen Schreiber

Nell Freudenberger

Shannon Reed

Suzanne Park

Lisa Grunwald

April Cohort:

Denise Dorrance

Steve Almond

Courtney Preiss

Ann Leary

Pinky Cole

Caroline Leavitt

Nicholas Kristof

Allison Pataki

Annabel Monaghan

Sheila Yasmin Marikar

Chantha Nguob

Lisa Barr

Rowan Beird

Genevieve Kingston

Jessie Rosen

Charles Duhigg

Francine Prose

Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn

Teddy Wayne

Carley Fortune

Jamie Figueroa

Katherine Center

Yukiko Tominaga

Victor Lodato

Madeleine Henry

Ali Rosen

Beth Rodden

Sophie Trudeau

Rachel Dodes and Lauren Mechling

Jessica Fein

Bakari Sellers

Ruth Reichl

Tiffany Haddish

Jess H. Gutierrez

Emmanuel Acho and Noa Tishby

Sunny Hostin

May Cohort:

Debby Herbenick

Marjan Kamali

Penn and Kim Holderness

Jamie Brenner

Kate Bowler

Katie Arnold

Noa Yedlin

Clare Mackintosh

Poppy Harlow and Laura Jarrett

Emma Rosenblum

Hena Khan

Julia Phillips

Graham Moore

Laura Hankin

Dr. Amy Attas

Catherine Newman

Glynnis MacNicol

Nicole Avant

Paige Toon

Jane Rosen

Tom Seeman

Jen Rudin

Chales Kenney

Colombe Schneck

Plum Sykes

Anastasia Zadeik

Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Catherine Mack

Lauren Aliza Green

Talia Carner

Emily Harding and Audrey Bellezza

Chris Whitaker

Sarah Manguso

Alison Espach

Lisa Keefauver

Jonathan Haidt

Dr. Elizabeth Comen

MK Asante

Ed Burns

Elizabeth O’Connor

Clare Pooley

Bianca Bosker

Sherri Crichton and James Patterson

Elissa Strauss

June Cohort:

Johann Hari

Katherine Applegate

Jeff Norton and Holly Smale

Griffin Dunne

Maggie Smith (IG Live)

Josh Funk

Helen Russell

Brooke Lea Foster

Caro Carver

Sarai Johnson

Kimberly McCreight

Joselyn Takacs

Tara Stringfellow

Paul Scheer

Steven Rowley

Mary Jones

Emily Giffin

Georgia Hunter and Thomas Kail

Sarah Confino

Rebecca Sanford

Find all these conversations on Apple Podcasts here or search Zibby Media for any author name, title, or topic of interest!

Faculty and Staff

Hats off to the AMAZING Zibby Media team including all the exceptional booksellers at Zibby’s Bookshop!! All bios here. (Goodbye to Karen Menzie. Sorry to lose you!)

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After-School Activities!

Zibby’s Book Club

Learn more and join here!

September: Kelly McMasters, Patty Lin

October: Brittany Means, Ashley Audrain

November: Mitch Albom, Meghan Riordan Jarvis

December: Cleo Wade (without author), Emma Grey

January: Angela Brown

February: Laurie Frankel

March: Anna Quindlen

April: Susan Lieu

May: Julia Alvarez

The Podcast Club

(Podcasts that Had Me on as a Guest)

Purple Hearts Podcast

Friends and Fiction

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

A Bookish Home

I’m Not Your Shrink

Powerful Stories with Tory Archbold

She’s Got Issues

Write the Damn Book Already

Meant for It

Get Signed

Dedicated with Doug Brunt

Strala Book Club pick

Sysosset Public Library podcast

Healthy, Wealthy Mama Summit

I Don’t Know How You Do It

Tablet’s Unorthodox

The Skimm’s 9 to 5

Estelle Erasmus’s Freelance Writing Direct

Unimaginable Wellness

Deborah Kobylt Live

The Premise from San Diego Writers’ Festival

Age Well

The Style That Binds

Women with Cool Jobs

Why is Everyone Yelling at Me

Books Are Chic

The Write Review

A Mighty Blaze

NHPR with Rachel Barenbaum

Off the Shelf with Delaware Library podcast

As Told To podcast

The Interview with Leslie

Mom to More

Karin Gutman podcast

Cleveland Public Library podcast

The Print Magazine and Newspaper Club

(PRINT outlets that featured me!)

NYT Styles Section (coming Sunday!)

Publishers Weekly

LA Times

James Lane Post

Voyage LA

Atlantic Ave Magazine

Shoutout LA

Quest Magazine

2023-2024 Awards

Signal Awards for Best Host Interview/Talk Show and Best Host, Arts & Culture Podcast

Webby Award: People’s Voice winner for Best Interview/Talk Show; Honoree for this Substack right here, Zibby’s Highlights on Substack!!; Honoree for Zibby Mag

Lovie Award for General Series: Interview/Talk Show

Shortlisted: The Publisher Podcast Awards for Podcast Hero of the Hero and Best Entertainment Podcast

Girls Write Now Literacy Award

Congrats also to all the winners of The Zibby Awards!!

The Interviewers Club

(Outlets and Journalists Who Interviewed Me here!)

Alyssa Ages for Literary Mama

Destination LA

Good Day DC

Palisades Magazine

NY1 with Annika Pergament

Le Nacion by Juana Libendinsky

Sandy Kenyon for Fox-5 Eyewitness News

Tamron Hall on the Tamron Hall Show

CBS2 NY with Mary Calvi

Columbus Dispatch

Waves Magazine Santa Monica

Romper

LA Mom

Alissa Henry ABC-6 Columbus

LA Mag

CBS-2 Chicago

Good Morning America

Pix-11 News

Today.com

TinyABC Book Club

Readers’ Coffeehouse Book Club

Palm Beach Daily News (The Shiny Sheet!)

New Hampshire NPR with Rachel Barenbaum

Julie Maloney’s Women Reading Aloud

NY Mag

Cup of Jo

The Skimm

Forbes.com

Yale Alumni Magazine

Thrive Global

Spotlight Hamptons

Katie Couric Media

Thrive

Newsday

Gretchen Rubin’s newsletter

WGN-TV

Harvard Business School Alumni Magazine

… and more that featured Blank on lists and more like Town & Country, Bustle, and more plus all the blogs!!! Plus all the outlets that covered our Zibby Books titles. THANK YOU!

The Literary Society

(Where I Contributed but think I’m forgetting some…)

Vogue (essay and round-up)

Katie Couric Media

Good Morning America

Spotlight Hamptons

Oprah Daily (essay)

The Non-Profit Society

Organizations in which I held a leadership or board position.

Artists Against Antisemitism: Co-founder! Post-10/7 activism was a big part of my year. Read my latest post.

Mount Sinai Parenting Center

Mount Sinai Health System

The Child Mind Institute

NYPL

(Coming soon: a new Women’s Health Center initiative!)

Bookstore Lovers Club

Bookstores where I signed copies of Blank this year!! THANK YOU FOR HAVING ME!!! The Zibby-verse Tour only has a couple more events.

NY:

The Strand

Corner Bookstore

Books are Magic

Shakespeare & Co

P&T Knitwear with Jenny Mollen

BookHampton

Sag Harbor Books

B&N Bridgehampton

Katonah Reading Room

CA:

Zibby’s Bookshop

The Best Little Bookshop in Palm Springs

CO:

Tattered Cover, Denver

CT:

Elm Street Books

Athena Books with Avery Carpenter Forrey

Barrett Bookstore

FL:

Books and Books Coral Gables with Alexandra Wilkis Wilson

The Palm Beach Bookstore with Dara Levan

GA:

Virginia Highland Books with Shelli Johannes

IL:

Madison Street Books with Stacy Igel

MA:

Saltwater Bookstore

Beacon Hill Books

Belmont Bookstore

Newtonville Books, Boston with Hanna Halperin

Bookshop of Beverly Farms

MD:

The Ivy Bookstore on way to Jill Smokler

MN:

Valley Booksellers with Nina Badzin

NJ:

Books and Greetings with Alisyn Camerota

PA:

Booked Chesnut Hill

SC:

Buxton Books with Victoria Benton Frank and Stacy Willingham

TN:

Parnassus Books with Elle Evans

TX:

Brazos Bookstore in Houston with Chris Cander

Cindy Burnett’s Thoughts from a Page Salon

Interabang with Amanda Eyre Ward

… and more that I visited plus more than hosted events for our Zibby Books authors!!

The Book Publishing Club

Books published by Zibby Books this academic year. Every book is a lead title!

September: End Credits by Patty Lin

October: Hell if We Don’t Change Our Ways by Brittany Means

November: End of the Hour by Meghan Riordan Jarvis

December: The Last Love Note by Emma Grey

January: Everyone But Myself by Julie Chavez

February: The House of Plain Truth by Donna Hemans

March: Here After by Amy Lin

April: Wedding Issues by Elle Evans

May: I Want You More by Swan Huntley

Note: Of these titles we had two Book of the Month Club picks, a Target Book Club pick, and two USA Today Bestsellers!!!

My own novel Blank also came out which was NOT published by Zibby Books but published by Little A. Also a USA Today Bestseller!

The Bookshop Club

Too many events to list! 231 live events at Zibby’s Bookshop this year. Watch all the recordings here. Learn more here! 1113 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA, 90403.

The Writing Community

Thanks to all the instructors of our Zibby Classes taught, writing community speakers, and participants! Learn more here. Were you a part of it? Comment here!

Collabs

So many amazing partnerships this year!!! We love our Social Goods sweatshirt, hat and mug collab, our Felix Doolittle custom stationery line, the Zibby-verse Boy Meets Girl tour tee, our Montage Resorts and Main Street Hospitality partnerships, and more! Plus all our fabulous brand partnerships for every title we publish. Email info@zibbymedia.com if you want to partner with us! Or if you want to introduce us to a partner, comment!

Field Trips

(Events I Hosted or Organized with My Amazing Team)

Soho House West Hollywood panel moderator

Planet Word event in Washington DC

Solvang, CA Zibby Retreat

Miami Book Fair Zibby Retreat

Emma Grey post-Thanksgiving event

Meghan Riordan Jarvis and Rebecca Soffer event

Media lunch for Blank

Moderated NYPL event with Emma Grey

Launch event for Lea Carpenter

Austin Zibby Retreat (absent: me)

New Year, New Chapter Petite Retreat with Media Cocktails and Author Dinner

Asheville Zibby Retreat

Chicago Petite Retreat at the American Writers Museum

The Zibby Awards at Zibby’s Bookshop

Summer Reads lunch in NY (bookshop party to come on June 23rd!)

Exchange Programs

(Events I personally spoke at this year and where!)

Crafting and Conversation panelist at the Craft Studio

NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute speaker

School Book Fair moderator

School event with Ingrid Fetell Lee

School event: “Writing for Your Life”

Miami Book Fair panelist

Moderated event with Aliza Pressman for Mount Sinai Parenting Center

Temple B’nai Jerusalem with Alisha Fernandez Miranda

Hey Mama conference panelist

Bedford Playhouse with Annabel Monaghan: “How to Survive the Writing Life”

B&N Union Square event booth

Sue Shapiro salon event speaker

Streicker Center event for Blank

School Publishing Panel

Tucson Literary Festival panelist

Literary Society of the Southwest event with Elizabeth Lyons

Happy Women Dinners speaker

Alt Summit Conference speaker

Two private Houston salons

Scarsdale Library panelist

New York Society Library speaker

Event with Delaware County Library at Jeni’s Ice Cream

PLA conference - booth

Erma Bombeck conference keynote speaker

Mom 2.0 panelist

Jill Smokler’s She’s Got Issues event speaker

Planet Word panel with Meghan Riordan Jarvis

Minneapolis event at ModernWell

Women’s Media Group event with Estelle Erasmus

Co-chair, NYPL Library Lunch

LA Times Festival of Books panelist

Charleston Library Society panelist

House of Speakeasy at Joe’s Pub speaker

Matzah Book Club pick event

Friends and Fiction pick event

Sephardic Community Center with Corie Adjmi

Girls Write Now event

JCC event Palm Beach Gardens with Jane L. Rosen

BookTalk with Rochelle Weinstein

Montclair Literary Festival

Streicker Center’s “Women on the Move” Talks with Ann Napolitano, Jean Kwok, Panel with Emma Grey, Patty Lin, Brittany Means and Alisha Fernandez Miranda, Curtis Sittenfeld

The Instagram Community

Thank you for all the support and engagement this year on all our accounts: zibbyowens, zibbysbookshop, zibbybookspublishing and momsdonthavetimetoreadbooks!!!!

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Thanks for a fabulous year in the Zibby-verse, everyone! Enjoy summer break!

Browse our yearbook photos here!! And subscribe to our Zibby Media Minute newsletter and Zibby’s Bookshop newsletter plus Zibby’s Book Club here!!

WE DID IT!!!!!