Join the Festival of Literary Diversity for an evening of conversation with bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, R.F. Kuang, as she shares insights into her highly anticipated new novel, Katabasis.
This event will include an onstage conversation with the FOLD’s executive director Jael Richardson, followed by an audience Q&A.
Don’t miss this special opportunity to hear from one of today’s most compelling literary voices—live at The Rose Theatre in Brampton on Monday, September 15, 2025 at 7:30 PM.
Tickets
Book and Ticket Bundle | $55
Includes admission plus one pre-signed deluxe limited edition copy of Katabasis (retails at $43) with a custom Canadian tour stamp provided by HarperCollins Canada.
Ticket | $18
Admission only (excludes the deluxe limited edition book).
FAQs
Will this event be recorded?
No, this event will not be recorded.
Will there be a signing after the event?
No, there will not be a signing or photo opportunities with R.F. Kuang after the event.
What is a deluxe limited edition of Katabasis?
The deluxe limited edition version of Katabasis is a collector’s hardcover that features stencilled edges, case effects, and illustrated endpapers. There will only be one print run of this edition.
What is a custom Canadian tour stamp?
The custom Canadian tour stamp is an ink stamp, only available at Canadian book tour stops. It is provided by HarperCollins Canada. A stamp table will be set up in the lobby where you can stamp your copy of Katabasis or other R.F. Kuang titles.
Will books be available for sale onsite?
Yes, Another Story Bookshop is our onsite bookseller. They will have all R.F. Kuang books available for sale before and after the event.
About Katabasis
Two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul—perhaps at the cost of their own.
Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek:
The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld
Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.
That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.
Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….
Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.
With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.
But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.
About R.F. Kuang
Rebecca F. Kuang is the award-winning, #1 New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy, Babel: An Arcane History, and Yellowface. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.