Nina St. Pierre with Cameron Lavi-Jones

Nina St. Pierre visits the store to discuss her memoir with Cameron Lavi-Jones, founder of the mental health awareness non-profit Hold Your Crown. Love is a Burning Thing is a riveting memoir about a daughter’s investigation into the wirings of her loving, unpredictable mother: a woman who lived her life in pursuit of the divine, and who started two big fires, decades apart. Ten years before Nina was born, her mother lit herself on fire in a dual suicide attempt. During her recovery in the burn-unit, a nurse initiated her into Transcendental Meditation. From that day on, her mother's pain became intertwined with the pursuit of enlightenment. Growing up, Nina longed for a normal life; instead, she and her brother were at the whims of their mother, who chased ascension up and down the state of California, swapping out spiritual practices as often as apartments. When they finally settled at the foot of a mountain—reputed to be cosmic—in Northern California, Nina hoped life would stabilize. But after another fire, and a tragic fallout, she was forced to confront the shadow side of her mother's mystical narratives. With obsessive dedication, Nina began to knit together the truth that would eventually release her. In Love Is a Burning Thing, Nina interrogates what happens to those undiagnosed and unseen. This is a transfixing, moving portrait of a mother-daughter relationship that also examines mental health, stigma, poverty, and gender—and the role that spirituality plays within each. Nina’s writing skirts the mystical, untangles it, and ultimately illuminates it with brilliance. Nina St. Pierre is a queer essayist and culture writer whose work has appeared in Elle, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Gossamer, Nylon, Outside, Columbia Journal, Bitch, Catapult, and more. She is a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Nonfiction Literature. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Rutgers-Camden. Cameron Lavi-Jones is a powerhouse of talent, heart and conviction. As the founding frontman of the Afropunk Alt Rock band King Youngblood, Lavi-Jones has defied the odds in the entertainment industry and brought his band to the national forefront in short order given he is only 25 years old. A University of Washington Communications graduate, Lavi-Jones continues to use his superpowers for good to inspire and ignite social change. Lavi-Jones founded the non-profit Hold Your Crown to address dismantling the stigma about youth mental illness and shine a light on paths to youth mental wellness through testimonial music therapy and sharing resources. See www.holdyourcrown.org and www.kingyoungblood.com

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