Join us for a conversation with Martin Cahill, fantasy writer, UAlbany graduate (BA ‘12, English), and the author of the debut novel, Audition for the Fox (2025), the tale of Nesi, an underachieving girl who is challenged by a trickster fox god to save herself by saving her own ancestors.

A 2025 USA Today bestseller, the book bears praise by major fantasy novelist N. K. Jemisin, author of the Broken Earth series, who said, “If you love my worlds, you're going to love Cahill’s: stunning imagination, daring premises, and deep character dives. A new author to watch.”

Bestselling novelist Karen Russell called it, “A wondrous, time-traveling, shape-shifting fable that was just what I needed to read.”

4:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 10
University at Albany
Multi-Purpose Room
Campus Center West Addition
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany NY 12222

Free and open to the public.
Books will be available for sale.
A signing will follow the conversation.

More:
https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org/martincahill

Praise for Audition for the Fox
Literary Hub’s Most Anticipated Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books for the Rest of 2025

“A wondrous, time-traveling, shape-shifting fable that was just what I needed to read. Cahill has a trickster’s gift for storytelling and a poet's sorcerous attunement to language.”
― Karen Russell, Pulitzer Prize Finalist and author of The Antidote

“Cahill combines his modern-day folktale with vividly imaginative worldbuilding.”
― Los Angeles Book Review

“A triumph, a candle-bright and timely pleasure lit up by gorgeous prose and an exuberant love for the world and for hope.”
― Cassandra Khaw, author of The All-Consuming World

“Highly recommended for readers who enjoy a good time-travel story that explores all the paradoxes and anyone who loves Nghi Vo’s “Singing Hills Cycle.”
― Library Journal

“Written in the style of a folktale and interspersed with legends told by characters within the story, Audition for the Fox is an exquisite tribute to ordinary people who act because ‘someone has to do something, and if [they're] not that someone, nothing will happen and nothing will get better.’”
― Shelf Awareness