EASY TO SLIP WRAPS 20-CITY NATIONAL BOOK TOUR
Standing-room crowds in NYC & LA prove the power of face-to-face storytelling
Washington, D.C., August 28, 2025 — In a publishing world run by algorithms and new technologies, Cal Hoffman’s Easy to Slip did it the old-fashioned way: one city, one reader, one story at a time. Over the last six months, Hoffman traveled to 20 cities from Washington, D.C. to San Diego, Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, and Seattle, drawing standing-room-only audiences in New York City and Los Angeles and building what critics have called a rare, grassroots literary movement.
From big cultural capitals to small towns with one blinking traffic light, Easy to Slip connected with audiences seeking literary conversation, summer fun, and the stimulating, free exchange of new ideas. In the Hudson Valley alone, Hoffman visited five towns in eleven days — not because of a marketing playbook, but because these communities still gather for the love of an exciting and original story.
The tour reflects a broader trend: independent bookstores are booming again. According to the American Booksellers Association, U.S. indie shops have surged from 1,700 in 2021 to more than 2,500 today. On this year’s Independent Bookstore Day, over 1,600 stores participated, with online sales up 77% and in-store engagement up 27% (Bookweb.org, 2025).
A Novel That Stays With You
Easy to Slip follows a gifted 17-year-old confronting psychological unraveling, family pressure, and the seductive pull of fame. Told from a survivor's perspective—the first novel to do so in 60 years since Joanne Greenberg’s I Never Promised You a Rose Garden—it delivers what readers across the country have described as “honest, cathartic, and unforgettable.”
Pulitzer Prize winners Geraldine Brooks, Carl Bernstein, Doug Wright, and David Auburn have praised Easy to Slip for its rare emotional clarity. Brooks calls it “Raw, brave, and gripping… an uncommon exploration of adolescence, psychosis, and recovery.”
With the 20-city tour now complete, one truth is clear: Easy to Slip doesn’t just tell a story — it builds community.
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Click the picture below to listen to the Podcast featuring Cal Hoffman, author of Easy to Sip <<>>
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Click the picture below to listen to the Podcast featuring Cal Hoffman, author of Easy to Sip <<>> 〰️
An Uncle's sudden stardom has unforeseen effects on his newphew's family. As his celebrity soars, an impressionable boy must grapple with new definitions of success and an unbeatable pressure to be special. When he arrives at college in the gritty New York of the 1970s, his mind is overrun by malevolent voices and visions. Raw, brave, and gripping, Easy to Slip is an uncommon exploration of adolescence, psychosis, and recovery. <<<<>>>>
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An Uncle's sudden stardom has unforeseen effects on his newphew's family. As his celebrity soars, an impressionable boy must grapple with new definitions of success and an unbeatable pressure to be special. When he arrives at college in the gritty New York of the 1970s, his mind is overrun by malevolent voices and visions. Raw, brave, and gripping, Easy to Slip is an uncommon exploration of adolescence, psychosis, and recovery. <<<<>>>> 〰️
Recent press coverage from the New York Post and The Daily News of Cal Hoffman and Iliana Levine at the Mercer Hotel in New York City.
NOVEL EASY TO SLIP BY CAL HOFFMAN ENDS HIS 20 CITY TOUR STOPS IN WASHINGTON D.C., PALM BEACH, MIAMI, NEW YORK CITY, LOS ANGELES, SAN DIEGO, PITTSBURGH, PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, GREENVILLE, SHALLOTTE, KINGSTON, WOODSTOCK, SAUGERTIES, BOSTON, NEW YORK CITY, AND SEATTLE!!
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NOVEL EASY TO SLIP BY CAL HOFFMAN ENDS HIS 20 CITY TOUR STOPS IN WASHINGTON D.C., PALM BEACH, MIAMI, NEW YORK CITY, LOS ANGELES, SAN DIEGO, PITTSBURGH, PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, GREENVILLE, SHALLOTTE, KINGSTON, WOODSTOCK, SAUGERTIES, BOSTON, NEW YORK CITY, AND SEATTLE!! 〰️
Guests enjoy meeting Cal Hoffman, the author of Easy to Slip with his wife, Victoria Leacock Hoffman at Barnes & Noble UWS, NYC.
Cal Hoffman with his wife, Victoria Leacock Hoffman
Molly Ringwall eager to listen to Cal Hoffman’s Presentation —photo by Patick McMullen.
Over 150 guests packed the space: a mix of literary icons, curious readers, neighborhood regulars, and boldfaced names. The moment Cal read aloud, silence became spellbound.
Easy to Slip Nationwide 2025 Book Tour - Second Leg Begins June
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Monday, June 9, 2025 @ 7:30 PM. M. Judson Booksellers hosts in its Books Over Drinks series, author Cal Hoffman for a reading of his novel, Easy to Slip —a raw, gripping coming-of-age story. The author will engage in conversation with Dorothy Dowe. ($40 includes signed book and specialty cocktail, reserve: here.)
Address: 130 S. Main St., Suite 200A Greenville, South Carolina 29601
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Saturday, June 14, 2025 @ 5:30 PM. AZIO Media’s The Gingerbread house hosts author Cal Hoffman for a reading of his novel, Easy to Slip —a raw, gripping coming-of-age story. The author will engage in conversation with David Henderson.
Address: 280 Holden Beach Road SW Shallotte, North Carolina 28470
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Thursday, June 26, 2025 @ 7 PM, Riverstone Books hosts author Cal Hoffman for a reading and of his novel, Easy to Slip —a raw, gripping coming-of-age story. The author will engage in conversation with Mike Garand.
Address: 5841 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
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Easy to Slip begins its Hudson Valley chapter on Tuesday, July 1, @ 6 PM with a special event at Oblong Books: a reading by Cal Hoffman, followed by an intimate conversation with Peter Riegert.
Address: 6422 Montgomery Street, Rhinebeck, New York 12572
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Saturday, July 5, from 5:00 to 6:00 PM, The Woodstock Library hostsCal Hoffman’s Easy to Slip —a coming-of-age story told from the inside. The author will read an excerpt and engage in conversation with David Wallis. Books sold by the Golden Notebook. Join us afterwards at SHELTER, 21 Mill Hill Road. Free drink with us at Shelter, with an Easy to Slip book receipt.
Address: 5 Library Lane, Woodstock, NY 12498
What People Are Saying
“Intricate, hallucinatory, funny and harrowing, Cal Hoffman’s absorbing novel takes us deep into the psyche of an exceptional everyman, whose coming-of-age is at once singular and universal.”
— David Auburn, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Proof.
“At once memoir, novel, and reportage, Cal Hoffman brings us his remarkable gift for the most intimate story-telling: probing his own young psyche, through the language and tools of a writer, to unravel and overcome the hellish mysteries of psychosis. It is impossible not to marvel at this harrowing tour of the mind from deep within and the triumphant distance of recovery.”
—Carl Bernstein, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author of Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom, All the President’s Men, and Loyalties: A Son’s Memoir
“An uncle’s sudden stardom has unforeseen effects on his nephew’s family. As his celebrity soars, an impressionable boy must grapple with new definitions of success and an unbearable pressure to be special. When he arrives at college in the gritty New York of the 1970s, his mind is overrun by malevolent voices and visions. Raw, brave, and gripping, Easy to Slip is an uncommon exploration of adolescence, psychosis, and recovery.”
—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March.
With the veracity of a diarist, Cal Hoffman uses vivid stream-of-consciousness prose to dramatize the story of a precocious young Columbian student doing his very damnest to stay on the right side of sanity. It's a story that touches the heart and the mind in equal measure....by Doug Wright, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright of I Am My Own Wife.
With the veracity of a diarist, Cal Hoffman uses vivid stream-of-consciousness prose to dramatize the story of a precocious young Columbian student doing his very damnest to stay on the right side of sanity. It's a story that touches the heart and the mind in equal measure....by Doug Wright, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright of I Am My Own Wife.
“With the veracity of a diarist, Cal Hoffman uses vivid stream-of-consciousness prose to dramatize the story of a precocious young Columbian student doing his very damnest to stay on the right side of sanity. It’s a story that touches the heart and the mind in equal measure.”
Doug Wright, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright of I Am My Own Wife.
About the Author
CAL HOFFMAN
Cal Hoffman is a writer, educator, and actor. He graduated from Catholic University and studied at Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London and the MFA Fiction Writing program at Columbia U. He taught English and creative writing to immigrant children, private school students, and foster youth.
Cal acted in regional theater nationwide and starred in the acclaimed New York revival of Jules Feiffer’s play Elliot Loves.
He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Victoria Leacock Hoffman, and their son, Harry. Cal is currently completing his second novel, Judah Can’t Tell.
