A Week in New York City as a Debut Author on Book Tour—Writer Diary
Yasmin Zaher is a Palestinian journalist and writer born in 1991 in Jerusalem. Her first novel, The Coin, was released by Catapult on July 9, 2024.
This diary represents a week in her life on her first book tour, where she signed book copies around New York City, celebrated her birthday, had her first radio interview, and more.
Monday, July 8
10:00— Waking up in a tiny apartment, I swapped in New York’s West Village for our apartment in Paris. It’s on Charles Street and reminds me of Carrie Bradsahaw. Today is my birthday!
11:00 —Birthday brunch with my husband at Sadelle’s in Soho.
13:00— Visit the Met Cloisters to escape the heat. I love the mystical unicorn tapestries.
18:00— I feel an itch in the back of my throat and am worried that I’m getting sick. I call my parents and they tell me that even if I’m sick, I won’t feel it in the moments that matter, adrenaline will take over.
00:00 — bedtime
Tuesday, July 9
9:00—Pub day!
11:00 I visit the Catapult office to say hi to the team. I meet people who have worked on the book but whom I have never met before in person.
12:00— I get a coffee with my publicist Lena Moses-Schmitt outside the radio offices of WNYC. She accompanies me everywhere that week – navigating, making sure I’m on time, supporting me with the stress.
12:30 —Radio interview on WNYC’s All Of It with Alison Stewart. It’s my first radio experience, I’m filled with adrenaline, and it goes by too quickly.
13:30— Lunch with the Catapult team.
15:00— I sign some copies at Rizzoli Bookstore.
15:30—I sign some copies at McNally Jackson in Soho.
00:00 —Bedtime
Wednesday, July 10
10:30— I see a very supportive Instagram post by Third Place Books in WA and it makes me happy.
11:00— I send last-minute invitations to tonight’s reading to old friends and second cousins who live in New York. At some point I realize the event is sold out.
14:00— An email comes in from my agent. Minumsa wants to publish the Korean edition of The Coin!
15:00— Video call with my best friend in Paris to devise an outfit for tonight.
17:00— Coffee in Seaport with Katie Kitamura, who will be moderating the event tonight. She asks me if I want to see the questions, I say no. She was my professor years ago, when I first started writing The Coin, and it feels like a full circle to do the event with her tonight.
18:00— Reading at McNally Jackson Seaport. I can’t remember anything.
20:00— Drinks at a bar nearby with all the people who worked on the book, plus my old friends and second cousins, plus others who were at the reading and came along. All the attention and celebration reminds me of my wedding day.
00:00— Bedtime, absolutely knocked out.
Thursday, July 11
9:00—My husband wakes me up, announcing that there’s a review in The New York Times. I don’t read it, I just ask if it says anything bad.
10:30— Zoom interview with Platform Magazine in india.
12:00— Takeaway lunch from Citarella. I’ve been eating like a New Yorker, all my meals come in cardboard boxes.
17:00— I sign some copies at Three Lives & Company.
17:30— I sign some copies at Strand Book Store.
19:00— I do a virtual reading event with Poets & Writers. The energy is not the same online, but there are so many people, certainly more than can fit in an independent bookstore.
00:00— Bedtime
Friday, July 12
9:00— Wakeup
12:00— Brunch with a friend.
13:30— Lunch with another friend.
19:00— Apero and multi-course dinner chez my editor Kendall Storey, with a magnificent cake baked by Editorial Assistant Elizabeth Pankova, which is inspired by the setting of the finale of The Coin.
22:00—We are joined for drinks by some other writers. It seems that everyone knows everyone, and I am reminded that New York is the capital of publishing, but I’m also relieved to be leaving it all behind at the end of the week.
2:00— Bedtime
Saturday, July 13
12:00 —Wake up
18:00— I sign some copies at the McNally Jackson at Rockefeller Center, and my husband and I cash my gift card. I buy I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel and he buys The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides.
20:00— Korean BBQ with my cousin and his girlfriend.
00:00— Bedtime
Sunday, July 14
8:00— A car picks me up to attend the last day of the Page Break retreat in Upstate NY, where some 20 people have been reading The Coin all weekend. Chef Hera made dinners inspired by the book, including one titled “garbage to gluttony.”
11:00— Brunch at the Spruceton Inn in the Catskills with the participants of Page Break. They’ve done a very deep reading of the novel, and I answer some of the most interesting questions I’ve ever been asked about the book. One of the participants baked incredible The Coin biscuits.
16:00— Gallery visit in Hudson, NY.
19:00— Chinese dinner near Newark Airport.
00:00— Flight home.
