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All the Gold Stars

What will Kentucky Book Festival visitors find on your table?

We’ll have books, plenty of conversation on ambition, and hopefully maybe even some gold stars stickers of our own.

Whom do you invite to stop by? Who will benefit from reading your book?

I’d love for anyone and everyone to stop by! If you’ve ever felt burnt out, like you’re never doing enough, wondered what you’re aspiring to, or are rethinking your relationship to ambition, achievement, and striving, my hope is that this book connects with you in some way. 

Could you please tell us something curious about you and/or your book?

The reporting in the book includes interviews with people of all ages–people who are students, parents, workers, psychologists, labor organizers, and more. Getting to hear people’s stories, and learn from their experiences and expertise, shifted my own relationship with striving and work over the course of writing this book.

Is this your first time participating in Kentucky Book Festival? If yes – what are you looking forward to the most? If you’ve participated before – what was your favorite experience at the Festival?

Yes, this is my first time participating. I’m looking so forward to getting to meet readers and authors alike, and of course, I’m looking forward to discovering plenty of new books to read. 

About the Author

Rainesford Stauffer, a Kentucky freelance writer and reporter, has contributed reports and essays to TIME Magazine, The Guardian, Esquire, Teen Vogue, The New York Times, and other publications. Her latest book, All the Gold Stars, is an examination, dismantling, and reconstruction of ambition, where burnout is the symptom of our holiest sin: the lonely way we strive.

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