Cathy Alter - Up for Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me about Love, Sex, and Starting Over

Monday, April 26
Start Time: 6:00 PM

Cathy Alter will share from, and sign copies of, her memoir Up for Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me about Love, Sex, and Starting Over.  A reception will follow.  This event is free and open to the public.

About the book:
At thirty-seven, Cathy Alter’s life was not going the way she’d planned it.  Her freelance writing career had stalled.  With a failed marriage under her belt, she was continuing down a path of poor decisions paved with a steady stream of junk food, unpaid bills, and highly inappropriate men.  So she turned to a source of consolation, help, and lifestyle advice that women have been consulting for decades: the magazine rack.

Up for Renewal is Cathy Alter’s true-life story of the year she spent living by the advice of magazines. For twelve months, she consulted the sages at Elle, Marie Claire, O, Allure, Self, InStyle, Real Simple, Cosmo, and others for advice.  Looking for help with on everything from getting rid of under-arm jiggle to how to have a meaningful relationship with her mother, she resolved to follow this advice without question.  What actually happened was much less about cosmetic change and more about internal transformation.

By turns hilarious, embarrassing, and profound, Up for Renewal is a powerful and personal take on a question we’ve all asked ourselves: “Can I really change myself for the better?”

About the author:
Cathy Alter is a Washington, D.C.-based writer whose articles and essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Washingtonian, Self, Fitness, and McSweeney’s.  She received her bachelor's degree from Colgate University in 1987.