
Join Mesa Refuge’s Program Coordinator Eirinie Carson for her debut book release of her memoir The Dead Are Gods (Melville House). Eirinie will be in conversation with Mesa Refuge alum and board member Susan Ito.
After an unexpected phone call on an early morning in 2018, writer and model Eirinie Carson learned of her best friend Larissa’s death. In the wake of her shock, Eirinie attempts to make sense of the events leading up to Larissa’s death and uncovers startling secrets about her life in the process.
The Dead Are Gods is Eirinie’s striking, intimate, and profoundly moving depiction of life after a sudden loss. Amid navigating moments of intense grief, Eirinie is overwhelmed by her love for Larissa. She finds power in pulling moments of joy from the depths of her emotion. Eirinie’s portrayal of what love feels like after death bursts from the page alongside a timely, honest, and personal exploration of Black love and Black life. Perhaps, Eirinie proposes, “The only way out is through.”
The book was chosen as one of Oprah’s Spring Books.
Presented in partnership with the Mesa Refuge.
ABOUT EIRINIE CARSON
Eirinie Carson is a Black British writer, born to a Jamaican father and Scottish mother and raised in South East London. Her work is published in the Sonora Review and she is a frequent contributor to Mother magazine. A member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto, Eirinie writes about motherhood, grief, and relationships. She lives in Northern California with her musician husband and their dog and two daughters. The Dead are Gods is her first book.