Join Hive Mind Books for the First-Ever Tipsy Bee: Adult Spelling Bee & Book Fair!
A grown-up spelling bee with a twist! Root for a lineup of your new favorite authors as they try to spell in front of a live audience.
Want to spell yourself? Get here at 5pm to sign up. First come, first serve! As authors (inevitably) lose, we’ll call up our brave spellers to beat the authors still standing for the chance to win the Grand Prize!
Be ready for pop quiz spelling challenges with prizes and a good ole’ fashion book fair. Hive Mind Books, a new traveling indie bookstore, will be there with a curated selection of excellent new and secondhand books.
Totally free to attend, though an RSVP is required. Spectators are welcome. Spelling is NOT required if you RSVP. You’ll only spell if you sign up on the list the night of the event.
Bring spending money for books and beverages and remember to tip your bartender.
Check out our featured authors below!
Featured Authors
Mya Matteo Alexice is a non-binary, Black and white graduate of the Rutgers-Newark MFA. A Cave Canem fellow and pseudo-librarian, they are the author of A Shape We’ve Yet to Name (Game Over Books, 2024). Their poems can be found in or are forthcoming in publications such as Pleiades, Black Warrior Review, Copper Nickel, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Bennington Review, and elsewhere. They’ve received fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, Fine Arts Work Center, and more. They enjoy video games where you can make the characters kiss.
Talia Tucker lives and writes in New Jersey. She has a BA in communication from Rutgers University and an MA in liberal studies from Loyola University Maryland. She loves mindless comedies and twisty slow-burn dramas, both of which inspire her writing, as does her connection to her Korean and Jamaican communities. Rules for Rule Breaking is her YA debut.
Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of five novels including the forthcoming Dear Edna Sloane (Red Hen Press, 2024) and Animal Instinct (Putnam, 2025). She has worked as a writing teacher, editor, creative coach, and once, for three months, as the receptionist at a balloon factory. She was a very bad receptionist. Amy lives in Brooklyn with her two children. You can find her at amyshearnwrites.com or @amyshearn.
Daniel Lefferts is a writer living in the Hudson Valley. His debut novel, Ways and Means, was published by Abrams in February 2024 and was described by the Wall Street Journal as a "wildly entertaining drama of ambition and consequence." He holds an MFA from Columbia University and has taught writing at Columbia and Rutgers.
Asha Lemmie is the New York Times bestselling author of Fifty Words For Rain and The Wildest Sun. She holds a BA in English Literature from Boston College and is currently a graduate student at Columbia University. She resides in New York City but can frequently be found wandering. Asha writes historical fiction that focuses on bringing unique perspectives to life.
Judith Lindbergh is the author of the novel Akmaral, forthcoming from Regal House Publishing on May 7, 2024. Her debut novel, The Thrall’s Tale, was an IndieBound Pick and a Borders Original Voices Selection. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including in Newsweek, Writer’s Digest, Edible Jersey, Archaeology Magazine, and Up Here: The North at the Center of the World. Judith received a 2024 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She is the Founder/Director of The Writers Circle, a New Jersey-based creative writing center where she teaches aspiring and accomplished writers from ages 8-80.
EVENT DETAILS:
Sunday, April 14 5pm - 7pm
Pet Shop Bar, 193 Newark Ave, Jersey City NJ
Sign up to spell starts at 5pm. Sign up is first come, first serve.
Signing up does not guarantee participation.
RSVP (for spelling or spectating)
Questions? Email julie@hivemindbooks.com
Hosted by Hive Mind Books