• Featuring Eric Puchner, Associate Professor in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Writing Seminars program, and Gabriella Fee, current Moser Writer-in-Residence
Join us for a virtual discussion and celebration of Eric Puchner’s acclaimed new novel, Dream State, a New York Times Bestseller and 2025 Oprah’s Book Club Pick. A multi-generational tale of tangled love, enduring friendship, and fundamental impermanence.
Eric Puchner, Associate Professor in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Writing Seminars program, will be joined in conversation by Gabriella Fee, current Moser Writer-in-Residence and graduate of the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars (MFA ’22). Together, they’ll explore the craft of the novel—from the precision of Puchner’s sentences to his handling of time, perspective, and emotion. The program will include brief readings, conversation, and time for audience Q&A.
This special Hopkins at Home program is presented in partnership with the Moser Family Writing Series, launching in Fall 2025. The Moser Gift is a generous and inspiring investment in creative expression and lifelong learning at Johns Hopkins, made possible by Elizabeth Moser, A&S ’66 and includes a lineup of writing courses, field excursions, and virtual lectures offered alongside all our outstanding Odyssey creative writing courses.
2025 Oprah’s Book Club Pick
New York Times Bestseller
“Fresh, wise, funny, and compassionate…Cinematic from the outset, Dream State opens (just as if a circular lens were unscrewing) upon a beloved old family homestead, site of a doomed wedding—descriptions so warm and attentive, a reader can’t help falling in headfirst…a wonderful feast, and feat.”
—The Boston Globe
Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her future in-laws’ lake house in Salish, Montana, to finish planning her wedding to Charlie, a young doctor with a brilliant life ahead of him. Charlie has asked Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, though Cece can’t imagine anyone more ill-suited for the task—an airport baggage handler haunted by a tragedy from his and Charlie’s shared past. But as Cece spends time with Garrett, his gruff mask slips, and she grows increasingly uncertain about her future. And why does Garrett, after meeting Cece, begin to feel, well, human again? As a contagious stomach flu threatens to scuttle the wedding, and Charlie and Garrett’s friendship is put to the ultimate test, Cece must decide between the life she’s dreamed of and a life she’s never imagined.
The events of that summer have long-lasting repercussions, not only on the three friends caught in its shadow but also on their children, who struggle to escape their parents’ story. Spanning fifty years and set against the backdrop of a rapidly warming Montana, Dream State explores what it means to live with the mistakes of the past—both our own and the ones we’ve inherited.
Written with humor, precision, and enormous heart, both a love letter and an elegy to the American West, Dream State is a thrillingly ambitious ode to the power of friendship, the weird weather of marriage, and the beauty of impermanence.
Odyssey Registration will open on December 1st, including our Spring 2026 Moser Writing courses!
Discover upcoming creative writing offerings and learn more at odyssey.jhu.edu/creative-writing.
