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Community Partner: Red Cat Records |
An acclaimed musician, photographer, curator and producer, Melissa Auf der Maur is best known as the former bassist of rock bands Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins. Even the Good Girls Will Cry is a remarkable debut memoir from the ’90s Alternative era icon—and a vivid dispatch from the last analog decade.
Part rock memoir, part travel diary, and part psychedelic scrapbook, Even the Good Girls Will Cry begins with Auf der Maur’s bohemian upbringing in Montreal, where a thrown beer bottle and a long-shot fan letter scored her band a life-changing opening slot for The Smashing Pumpkins. Whisked from her local scene by Billy Corgan and thrust into the eye of a hurricane of grief, she joined Hole for the band’s 1994 Live Through This world tour just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and Hole’s prior bassist, Kristen Pfaff, with Courtney Love at the center of it all. This soulful memoir is “a crucial generational document of what it meant to be a woman in a band (and not just a band: the band).” —Matthew Specktor
Don’t miss this intimate event with Melissa Auf der Maur, who sits down for a conversation about the music and memories of a bygone era with CBC Radio host Lisa Christiansen. Books will be for sale at the event from Book Warehouse, a division of Black Bond Books, with an audience Q+A after the talk.
About Books & Ideas
Launched in January 2025, Books & Ideas is an event series from the Vancouver Writers Fest, bringing literary talent and thought-provoking conversations to Granville Island—home of the Writers Fest’s celebrated annual literary festival—from January to June. With an intimate theatre venue and a pop-up bar for socializing, attendees are invited to connect more deeply with other members of the local literary community, and meet the esteemed authors who grace the stage, in a modern space for exchanging ideas.
Participants and Speakers
Lisa Christiansen
LISA CHRISTIANSEN is a reporter/editor for CBC Vancouver’s The Early Edition. She is the co-host of the feminism and pop culture podcast Pop This! and a two time Polaris Music Prize grand juror.
Melissa Auf der Maur
MELISSA AUF DER MAUR was born and raised in Montreal, Canada with a fine arts education. She is an acclaimed musician, photographer, curator and producer, best known as the former bassist of rock bands Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins. In 2010 she co-founded Basilica Hudson, a multidisciplinary art center in Hudson, NY, where she lives with her family and magic cats.