A Celebration of Books,
Writers & LIterary Excellence

Save the Date


Gaithersburg
Book Festival

May 17, 2025

10am – 6pm

Bohrer Park


R. Eric Thomas

Latest Title: Congratulations, The Best Is Over!: Essays
Congratulations, The Best Is Over!: Essays
Congratulations, the Best is Over by R. Eric Thomas

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The beloved author of Here for It returns with an all-new collection of heartening, deeply relatable, and laugh-out-loud essays about what happens after happily ever after.

“Funny, insightful, and hopeful . . . a profound meditation on what it means to come home, and on finding your way again after the chaos of life takes you off your path.”John Paul Brammer, author of ¡Hola Papi!

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, 
Garden & Gun, Real Simple

After going viral “reading” the chaotic political news, having one-too-many awkward social encounters, and coming to terms with his intersecting identities, R. Eric Thomas finally knew who he was and where he was going. He was living his best life.
 
But then everything changed.

In this collection of insightful and hilarious essays, Thomas moves back to his perpetually misunderstood hometown of Baltimore (a place he never wanted to return, even to be buried) and behaving completely out of character. They say you can’t go home again, but what if you and home have changed beyond recognition? From attending his twenty-year high school reunion and discovering another person’s face on his name badge, to splattering an urgent care room with blood à la The Shining, to being terrorized by a plague of gay frogs who’ve overtaken his backyard, Thomas provides the nitty, and sometimes the gritty, details of wrestling with the life he thought he’d left behind while trying to establish a new one.

With wit, heart, and hope for the future, Congratulations, The Best Is Over! is the not-so-gentle reminder we all need that even when life doesn’t go according to plan, we can still find our way back home.

About R. Eric Thomas

R. Eric Thomas is a national best-selling author, playwright and screenwriter. His books include “Here for It, or How to Save Your Soul in America,” which was a Read with Jenna pick on NBC’s Today Show; “Kings of B’more,” a 2023 American Library Association Stonewall Honor book, and “Congratulations, the Best Is Over!,” an instant USA Today best-seller. For his playwriting, Eric has won the Barrymore Award for Best New Play, the Dramatist Guild Lanford Wilson Award and the Lambda Literary Award. On screen, he wrote for “Dickinson” on AppleTV+ and “Better Things” on FX, and is currently developing multiple projects.

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Instagram: @oureric

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Author Schedule:

Venue(s):

Gertrude Stein Pavilion

Presentation Start Time:

1:15 pm

Presentation End Time:

2:05 pm

Signing Time:

2:15 pm

Presentation Authors: