Joshua James Amberson with Candace Jane Opper

Joshua James Amberson reads from his debut collection of nonfiction, Staring Contest: Essays about Eyes (Perfect Day Publishing, 2023), which charts a relentlessly curious series of detours through oft-ignored aspects of vision and vision loss. “Staring Contest is a jewel box of an essay collection," says Jordan Kisner. "It takes a quotidian facet of experience—the human gaze—and considers it at length, revealing an overlooked world of ideas and resonances. The prose is lush and precise, and the gaze (ha) feels singularly tender. A delight.” Amberson will be joined in conversation by Candace Jane Opper, author of Certain and Impossible Events.