We’ve loved Chloe Caldwell for years, and we were delighted to feature her novella Women as a pick. Now, we’re publishing her as part of our Coffee House Press imprint! I’ll Tell You in Person is a candid and captivating account of a journey towards adulthood, and all the things that might mean. Chloe Caldwell has an unsparing knack for looking within and reporting back what’s really there, rather than what she’d like you to see. She’s one of the most gifted natural storytellers around, and this essay collection is her best work yet.
“Chloe Caldwell has written the ideal ‘female companion book’—meaning, while reading I’ll Tell You in Person, I felt like I had a female companion with me at all times. On the subway, I had my female companion. In my backpack, I had my female companion. On the sidewalk, I held tight to my female companion, and pedestrians would stare at her, so boldly yellow in my hands. Pretty soon my female companion took up residency in my head. She helped me process the world with sass, spite, sympathy, and wit. I don’t know what could be better than a book that allows you to be alone but to never feel lonely. I’ll Tell You in Person does this and more. It projects the most potent afterglow, and Caldwell is a writer beyond gifted and generous. She is like a sage.”
—Heidi Julavits
“I read this book in two breathless days, and basically all I want to do now is eat macaroni and cheese, day drink rosé, and harmonize with Chloe Caldwell. I want to be her friend.”
—Samantha Irby
“Chloe Caldwell tells you all her secrets in a controlled mania so you can devour them in a more compulsive fashion. I couldn’t stop reading this book, and when I was finished I kept looking around to see where my awesome new friend went. She’s right in here, brimming with most excellent girldom, a commitment to experience that feels religious, a dedication to vulnerability that likewise radiates holy holy holy. I love this person’s life, and I love the way she writes about it—funny and blunt and chatty and truthful.”
—Michelle Tea
Chloe Caldwell is the author of the novella Women, and the essay collection Legs Get Led Astray. Her work has appeared in The Sun, Salon, VICE, Hobart, Nylon, The Rumpus, LENNY, and Men’s Health, among others. She teaches personal essay and memoir writing in New York City and lives in Hudson.
Chloe Caldwell is the author of the novella Women and the essay collection Legs Get Led Astray (Future Tense Books, 2012). Chloe’s next essay collection, I’ll Tell You In Person, will release fall of 2016 from Coffee House Press and Emily Books. She lives in Hudson, New York.
The liberating thing about publishing an essay collection before you are a fully formed person is that there is nothing to fear. You have no readers. No experience. No memories of doing it before. No wounds. The bad thing about publishing an essay collection at twenty-five, when the frontal lobe has barely finished developing, is there is nothing to fear. No readers. No experience. No memories of doing it before. No wounds.
Chloe Caldwell, I’ll Tell You In Person
Essays and fiction about coming of age, friendships, and writing your way towards some kind of goal.
