Breadcrumbs
Join us for an evening with bestselling author and Duke professor Kate Bowler, whose latest work insists that joy is still possible even when life refuses to cooperate.
In her new memoir, Joyful, Anyway, best-selling author Kate Bowler reveals the surprising magic of joy, and how we can access it even when happiness feels out of reach. This is not a book about fixing your life. It is about how we can all find more—feel more—by making room for small, extraordinary moments.
After surviving a stage-four cancer diagnosis, Bowler knew she was supposed to be grateful. She was alive. Blessed, even. But still she ached—for more connection, more surprise, less resentment on an ordinary day. So, she went looking for joy. Not the toxic-positivity kind or a 5-step plan. But the type that sneaks in unexpectedly, seemingly out of nowhere.
Bowler invites us into a conversation about joy that doesn’t require pretending everything is fine. Expect laughter, honesty, and the rare relief of being told the truth: you can’t always be happy—but you can be joyful, anyway.
Kate Bowler is the four-time New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason; No Cure for Being Human; Good Enough; The Lives We Actually Have; Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day; Blessed; and The Preacher's Wife. She hosts the popular podcast Everything Happens and writes the Substack of the same name. A Duke University professor, she earned a master's of religion from Yale Divinity School, and a PhD at Duke University.
Photo Credit: Michaella Jelin