Where Are They Now?

Zibby Retreats: Featured Authors Revisited

We started hosting Zibby Retreats for book lovers in 2023. At each retreat around the country, we brought several featured authors who spent the weekend with us and the 40-60 readers. We bonded over great meals in beautiful hotels, checked out local bookstores, and connected over real conversations.

The retreats have taken us all over (photos on links): Austin, Asheville, Charleston, Hampton Bays, Miami, Palm Beach, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, Scottsdale, and Solvang, plus day-long “petite retreats” in Chicago, New York, L.A., Bridgehampton, and Greenwich. Sometimes the local bookstore drew us there. Sometimes it was the weather, the local authors, or just somewhere we wanted to visit.

Led by Graça Tito (gracasbookparties on Instagram), our retreats have been featured in the L.A. Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Chron., Southampton Press, and most recently, in Spotlight and the Palm Beach Daily News. (Thank you, journalists!)

How did I choose the authors? There’s no set formula. We usually included the authors whose books we were publishing at Zibby Publishing around that time. For the Santa Barbara Retreat, I invited several authors who had been personally affected by the fires in L.A. Most authors had books coming out or that had just launched and had been or were coming on my podcast. But there was something about all their stories that drew me to them and made me want to get to know them even more than through a short podcast interview. And I figured if I felt that way, other book lovers would too.

So what are they up to now? Hear from some of them below! Whether you’ve been on a retreat or not, you must check out these superstars. Go, authors! Next retreats to be announced.

MIAMI RETREAT

Meghan Riordan Jarvis, The End of the Hour

In 2024 Meghan published Can Anyone Tell Me: Essential Questions About Grief and Loss, a book designed for grievers and their supporters. She founded the Grieftastic Book fair (like your middle school book fair only sadder) whose mission is to increase grief literacy and education. Newly added east coast events begin with an author event hosted by NYU & Hunter college in February, and another at Duke University on March 19th. Meghan travels one week out of every month teaching her trademarked Grief Mentor Method: Six Core Components to Creating a Personalized Grief Practice. Using grief and trauma theories, neuroscience and bioscience, she and her San Francisco based team train clinical helpers, business, and grievers at large on how grief impacts the body and offer a structured, supportive process to help navigate loss. The model will be offered to a much wider audience through tech enabled resources currently in development and expected to launch 2027.

Alisha Fernandez Miranda, My What If Year

The biggest news is publishing and promoting 4x USA Today bestseller Someone’s Gotta Give and doing over 45 events in 10 cities and two countries fundraising for organizations supporting immigrants and refugees.

Emma Grey, The Last Love Note

Zibby published my second novel, Pictures of You. Along with The Last Love Note, it became a USA Today bestseller and it has been optioned for a TV series. My third novel Start at the End is releasing in April with Zibby Publishing and also in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. There has been early film interest, which is very exciting. I’ve just submitted my fourth book, for publication in 2027 and am turning my mind to a new story for 2028, along with a couple of potential film projects. The musical that I co-wrote years ago with an Australian composer friend, Sally Whitwell, based on my teenage novel, looks like it may be staged next year, which is such a thrill.

SOLVANG - WINE COUNTRY

Patty Lin, End Credits: How I Broke Up with Hollywood

After that lovely retreat, I continued my book tour with events in Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Chicago, New York, Tucson, and San Diego, and was featured on several podcasts and radio shows including NPR. I’m currently writing a collection of essays and working as a background actor.

Michelle Wildgen, Wine People

I’ve been working on a novel and some essays about the science world as part of being writer in residence at a research institute at UW-Madison, started a new writers’ retreat called The Breakthrough with former BASS series editor Heidi Pitlor, and am busy as an independent editor of fiction and memoir.

Eirnie Carson, The Dead Are Gods

Eirinie is super slammed right now with her launch for Bloodfire, Baby.

CHARLESTON

Gervaise Hagerty, In Polite Company

I’ve been working on two manuscripts— Family Camp and Don’t Tell Mom—and while they’re still ages away from hitting the shelves, they’ve both been picked up by UTA. Just for Kicks is my weekly radio show on WOHM 96.3 FM, where I interview everyone from war photographers to body waxers. I’ve also advanced to the intermediate level of pole sport (think pole dancing, minus the high heels). And finally, I recently accepted a board seat at the Charleston Library Society.

Mary Otis, Burst

I was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Award, was a runner-up for the Housatonic Book Award and featured at Lincoln Center and on PBS NewsHour. I continue to guest teach and am currently hard at work on a novel, a family saga set in the 1920s.

Megan Tady, Super Bloom

Meg’s second novel, Bluebird Day, published in 2024, was a Washington Post Noteworthy book. She’s working on her third novel while continuing to run her writing and editing business, Word-Lift. In March, she’s teaching a writing course through Writers in Progress called Mastering the Three-Act Structure.

Amanda Eyre Ward, Lovers and Liars

My new novel, Arrivals and Departures, will be published on June 16, 2026. I am working on a new novel, and adapting a few of my books for TV and film, which is a whole new world.

Laura Cathcart Robbins, Stash: My Life in Hiding

In 2024, my New York Times “Modern Love” essay was published and adapted into an episode of the Modern Love podcast. I was also named the San Diego Writers’ Festival Memoirist of the Year. Additionally, my debut novel, I Want Your Life, is set to launch as an Audible Original in 2027.

SANTA BARBARA RETREAT

Sonya Walger, Lion

Building a house, raising 2 kids and trying to create my third book and not another Pinterest board of backsplash tile. Book 2 (Wifehouse) comes out in April so getting ready for launch here and NYC and London. Have spent last few days recording the audiobook and hating myself for writing SO MANY DAMN ACCENTS. Book three I’m making everyone come from south west London, I swear it.

Natasha Sizlo, All Signs Point to Paris: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Identity

While my relationship to grief originally came through my book and my own lived experience, this year I began taking on private clients and discovered how much I truly enjoy this work. I’ve been leading grief hikes in Los Angeles and supporting individuals and communities navigating loss, including those impacted by the fires. I also led a healing online gathering followed by a community walk on the one-year anniversary of the Palisades fire. I completed my certification as an ANFT Forest Therapy Guide and now lead forest bathing immersions and ocean therapy in Los Angeles and Montecito. I’m planning retreats in Alaska and beginning to plan a Paris-based retreat inspired by All Signs Point to Paris, bringing together grief, place, and story, and of course the City of Light. Alongside this, I’m still active in real estate at The Agency. I also completed my executive coaching certification and hope to bring this nervous system aware, grief-informed work into leadership and organizational spaces. Writing remains at the center of everything. I recently got the rights back to All Signs Point to Paris and am working on the script, which has been a joyful and meaningful return to that story. And perhaps a book on forest bathing to follow!

Laura Diamond, Shelter Us

In all ways, it has been a year of sowing seeds. Physically, on the land where my house stood, we planted sunflowers on the 1-year anniversary of the Palisades fire. While we rebuild, I live walking distance to Zibby’s Bookshop! In the creative life, I am developing a podcast with a dear friend; shopping my memoir (American Mom) about a teenage asylum-seeker’s effect on my life’s work; and am writing a new memoir about my father (Diamond v. The World), about the courage to fight for good and have fun doing it. When I’m not wearing my writer hat, I am doing my best as a pro bono immigration lawyer to keep my young clients and their families safe as they pursue permanence in the U.S.

Amy Wilson, Happy to Help: Adventures of a People Pleaser

I’m producing multiple weekly episodes of my podcast What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood, and still loving it ten years in. I’m still in touch with friends I made on our lovely retreat—what a beautiful weekend that was.

Nanda Reddy, A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl

On the heels of my release last year, I’m working on a new novel.

Leslie Lehr, A Boob’s Life

As one of the Pacific Palisades Fire authors, I just moved back to the Palisades, but only temporarily. We bought a 1927 Spanish colonial in Santa Monica, so most of my creative juice is overseeing a complete renovation. My new office will overlook a tree-lined street not far from Zibby's Bookshop, and I can't wait to get back to writing a new novel. Last week I met with a director interested in my romcom screenplay based on my feminist/bodycon/breastcancer memoir A Boob's Life. Meanwhile, I'm making time for a few private writing clients and look forward to coming up for air as a featured author at the Santa Barbara Literary Festival in May.

SCOTTSDALE

Betty Cayouette, One Last Shot

My third romance novel will be announced very soon with a fun cover reveal! It’s called I Kissed Her First, and it will be out August 25th, 2026 with Saturday Books. I’m so excited to be able to share more about it soon! In the meantime, I’ve been working on my fourth romance novel and keeping busy playing pickleball.

Annabel Monaghan, Summer Romance

At the time of the retreat I had just finished It’s a Love Story, which came out last summer, and I had just started writing Dolly All the Time, which comes out this May. Right now I’m moving into a new place in Florida and - you guessed it - trying to wrestle a new book into submission.

Tara Schuster, Buy Yourself the F*cking Lillies

Since the retreat I have written and released a new book. (I believe!) it is the ultimate guide to journaling - This Journal F*cking Works: The Science, Ritual, and Art of Journaling. I’m now teaching it in journaling workshops and in my own journaling club because of its transformative power to help us reduce our anxiety and live more intentional, joyful lives.

Sarah Sawyer, The Undercurrent

I have been slowly but surely working on a new novel and teaching.

PALM SPRINGS

Swan Huntley, I Want You More

Swan is traveling and writing a novel. Also she invented The Erewhon Trail. It will be featured in The New Yorker and the LA Times soon.

Lara Love Hardin, The Many Lives of Mama Love

Lara has been living in Hawaii for the past year finishing her first novel, and is now currently (and temporarily) in Los Angeles writing for a Hulu/20th television series.

Ava Dellaira, Exposure

I’m just mom-ing and working on my new novel, called Fire Weather about motherhood and desire.

Joselyn Takacs, Pearce Oysters

Joselyn had a baby in May. She learned she was pregnant while on the Palm Springs retreat. Between naps, she's working on a novel set in the Sonoran Desert in the early 70s.

Steven Rowley, The Celebrants

I published my first novella The Dogs of Venice in October which was an instant USA Today Bestseller. My new novel Take Me With You is set in nearby Joshua Tree and publishes May 19th.

Mary Jones, The Goodbye Process

Mary is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter where she is working on a new short story collection and her first novel. She’s also considering a third dog.

Byron Lane, Big Gay Wedding

Byron Lane has started a cult. Actually, Byrontology is a Substack but calling it a cult is way more fun, featuring nonfiction essays, a community of creatives, and a podcast. He’s got a novel on submission and another in progress. His latest play, “Goodnight Roach,” opened in Los Angeles in December with more dates coming soon.

AUSTIN

May Cobb, The Hunting Wives

The adaptation of my novel, The Hunting Wives, hit #1 on Netflix this past summer and my latest thriller, All the Little Houses, released 1/20/26, is an instant USA Today Bestseller.

Wendi Aarons, I’m Wearing Tunics Now: On Growing Older, Better, and a Hell of a Lot Louder

I am finishing up writing a comedic novel, teaching about humorous essays at the Erma Bombeck conference in March, and still contributing satire to McSweeneys and The New Yorker.

Elizabeth Crook, The Madstone

I was awarded the 2025 Texas Medal of Arts Award along with Richard Linklater, Sandy Duncan, Dennis Quaid and others, and the Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Texas Institute of Letters.

Dina Gachman, So Sorry For Your Loss

Dina Gachman has continued writing for publications like the New York Times and Texas Monthly, and she’s working on a new non-fiction book proposal. Her Times profile of Charlie Sheen was selected as The Great Read in September 2025. She’s a featured journalist on the PBS series Texas Monthly Presents: The Story, and her episode “Life & Death“ won an Emmy in the fall of 2025. She’s also ghostwritten several celebrity memoirs for Simon & Schuster, Gallery Books + more. Her book So Sorry For Your Loss: How I Learned To Live With Grief, and Other Grave Concerns will be featured at the 2026 Greater Austin Book Festival.

Donna Hemans, The House of Plain Truth

I’m juggling two novels in various stages of completion. The older one is in the final revision stage, or what I hope is the “just-about-ready-to-fly-the-coop” stage. And the second is brand new, still stitching the first draft together.

ASHEVILLE

Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss is Running Out of Time

Since our Asheville retreat, I've published my sophomore novel, Some Other Time, which was released by Little A in February 2025. I'm also currently preparing to release my third novel, Ways to Find Yourself (also with Little A) this May.

Denise Kiernan, We Gather Together

I have a new book coming out: Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution. It is the story of the American Revolution that we think we all know—tea party, Valley Forge, Saratoga, etc.—seen through the eyes and experiences of women, enslaved individuals, and Indigenous peoples. Obstinate Daughters is also part travelogue. Throughout the book, I visit various sites mentioned and explore the legacy—or lack thereof—of some of the featured women in the book.

Obstinate Daughters pubs June 23, 2026. Parade magazine named it to its list of the “20 Most Anticipated Books of 2026.” Since October 27, 2025—250 days before the 250th anniversary of the Declaration—I have been posting almost every day about some aspect of this era of history. Some are items that didn’t make the final edit, others just random tidbits, photos from my research travels, etc.

Elle Evans, Wedding Issues

I just welcomed my first daughter in November, so most of my attention is there. Still writing and working on future projects, hopefully with news later this year.

Kristy Woodson Harvey, The Summer of Songbirds

Leave it Up to Love, my Amazon Original Short Story is the Kindle First Read for February meaning it is free for anyone with Amazon Prime for the month of February. The official release for non-Prime members if March 1, where it will be $1.99 in both Kindle and audiobook. May 5, I am releasing Summer State of Mind, a story about a NICU nurse and the abandoned baby that sends shockwaves through the close knit town of Cape Carolina. On February 23, I will be making a special announcement about my fall book, so stay tuned! And, look for some fun adaptations coming soon. A Happier Life is in development with MGM/Amazon for film, The Summer of Songbirds is in development with Hulu for a television show, and Under the Southern Sky and Beach House Rules have been recently optioned.

FIERCE WOMEN RETREAT, HAMPTON BAYS

Katie Sise, The Break

After our incredibly special Zibby retreat, I finished writing the first draft of The Vacation Rental, and it was published in 2024. It’s a juicy story about a young photographer who escapes the city to rent a vacation home, and, of course, nothing is as it seems. This one was a News 12 Summer Book pick, which was really fun. In 2025, my next mystery/thriller, You Must Be New Here, was published. I had a particularly good time doing readings and visiting book clubs for this one; readers seemed to really relate to the feeling of being new in town and trying to fit in with the unspoken social rules.

Leigh McMullen Abramson, A Likely Story

I have been slowly finishing a novel, a mystery / romance about two people who meet as children at a private library when a priceless Edith Wharton cigarette case is stolen from an exhibit. It takes place over 3 summers spanning 15 years. I have just last week finished my draft so hope to be marketing it to publishers soon. In the meantime, I have kept busy writing pieces for New York Magazine, including one where I got to delve into the world of competitive horse shows. Other than that I have been running around after my kids.

Ann Garvin, I Thought You Said This Would Work

There’s No Coming Back from This published August 1, 2023. It’s about a midwest lady who gets caught up with the sharks of Hollywood as a must-hire in the costume department on a big movie set. Bummer Camp launched in September. It was about a fake health influencer who creates a camp for anxious and depressed adults run by anxious and depressed college students. Tell Two Friends will launch August 11, 2026. I describe it as: A physics professor, a feminist muse and a serial killer walk into an Ann Garvin book. It’s a funny and sad suspense. My protagonist wrote to an incarcerated man when she was a young college student, thinking it was a nice thing to do. Twenty-five years later unbeknownst to her, the man moves in next door with a meticulous plan that no one knows about but him.

Tara Stiles, Clean Mind, Clean Body

I have a new book coming January 2027, Living Softly: The Simple, Feel-Good Approach to Accomplishing More by Doing Less. I’ve been writing more on softness on Substack lately and plan to keep that going. Other than that I still travel a lot leading yoga workshops and trainings and things with Strala. We have a new yoga class every day on the Strala Yoga app and our community there is now 20,000 people of all different backgrounds and countries coming together to feel better so we can have good energy to use our gifts for good.

Stay tuned for more retreats to come!