On today's episode, we welcome Josh Riedel, author of the new novel Please Report Your Bug Here from Henry Holt. Josh graduated from Portland's Reed College, as an English major, then moved to the Bay Area to work at Facebook in its early days. Josh left Facebook to join a startup that was acquired by Facebook soon after, left again to become the first employee at Instagram. Which, guess what, was also acquired by Facebook. Then left the tech world entirely to earn his MFA from the University of Arizona. His short stories have appeared in One Story, Joyland, and Passages North, among others. Josh currently lives in San Francisco, which has not yet been acquired by Facebook.
Please Report Your Bug Here is Josh’s first published novel, and it had me hooked from the very first pages. Helen Phillips calls the book ““a Silicon Valley gumshoe story that’s also a meditation on authenticity and connection in a world ever more mediated by technology. In this riveting and surreal debut, Josh Riedel explores the labyrinthine mysteries of Big Tech and of the human heart.”
Josh will be appearing at Powell's City of Books, in conversation with Erica Berry, on Friday, March 24th at 7pm.
Author photo courtesy of Andrew Owen
- KBOO