A Night of Stories and Spirits at Riffraff Bookstore & Bar

History and heartache meet in the pages of Guardians & Saints, the new short story collection from Providence author Diane Josefowicz. Out October 21 from Cornerstone Press, the book explores what happens when the people we depend on fall short and what it takes to find care and connection in their absence.

To celebrate the release, Riffraff Bookstore & Bar in Providence will host a reading and conversation with Josefowicz and Lucas Mann, Riffraff’s co-owner, on Friday, October 24. The evening will include a reception and book signing, giving readers a chance to toast a local literary talent whose work continues to challenge and inspire.

In Guardians & Saints, Josefowicz tells the stories of children and young adults left to navigate loss, neglect, and the complicated adults who shape their worlds. The collection asks who steps in when parents fail and how we survive the voids left behind. Her characters wrestle with difficult issues including domestic abuse and mental illness, yet her stories always hold a thread of hope, curiosity, and compassion.

“Guardians & Saints is an artful collection of surprising perspectives. These riveting and potent stories balance hilarity and depth of human understanding as they examine ordinary worlds and sometimes strange ones,” said Aida Zilelian, author of All the Ways We Lied.

Josefowicz, who lives in Providence, is also the author of Ready, Set, Oh and the novella L’Air du Temps (1985). Her short fiction has appeared in Conjunctions, Sou’Wester, Fence, and Saint Ann’s Review. Known for her blend of historical texture and emotional honesty, Josefowicz continues to expand her storytelling reach. Her next novel, The Great Houses of Pill Hill, will be published in May by Soho Crime. The book is a literary locked-room mystery about an interior decorator with a secret side hustle creating miniature reproductions of crime scenes.

Guardians & Saints will be available beginning October 21 through Cornerstone Press and local booksellers. The Riffraff celebration on October 24 offers the perfect chance to raise a glass to one of Rhode Island’s most original voices in fiction.