Reg #: 6955374
COMING OCT. 13, 2026
Chronicling the struggles and successes of five pole dancers, the club owner they work for, and their mothers, this debut novel-in-stories delves into the profound impact of intergenerational trauma on families striving to create meaningful lives.
The Red Barn, a pole dancing venue on the outskirts of Easton, Pennsylvania, is co-owned by Eddie and Victoria. Like the other dancers—GB, who is courageous and nonbinary; Marie, who struggles with depression; Violet, who is manifesting her dream; and Celeste, who grapples with religion and body image—Eddie and Victoria have been shaped by their mothers’ secrets and fears. These mothers suffered from domestic abuse, mental illness, and addiction, yet their only concern was to create a safe, stable home life for their children.
Spanning the 1940s through the 1980s, these fourteen interconnected stories about these mothers and their children explore how intergenerational conflicts are confronted and resolved. Each story features the emotional and embodied journey of one character, and together they form a larger narrative about how individual identity and community intersect in the aftermath of trauma and betrayal.
Ultimately, the Red Barn family learns that risk-taking is not only possible but necessary. Life’s obstacles and struggles may be heavy, but they need not be defining. What matters is trusting the process of becoming an authentic self at any age.
Praise for Pole Dancers at the Red Barn
A subtle, ingenious, moving book. From the first page, Katz ushers us into a fully realized world. Her characters are not so much described as cracked open—the book is so electrically alive to what it is that makes us human, the wonder and tragedy and triumph of our lives and the lives of those who’ve shaped us. It is a multifaceted gemstone, each story offering its own sort of brilliance, and in aggregate, a kind of kaleidoscopic beauty.
When I was fifteen, I imagined running away and becoming a stripper. What I really wanted was the Red Barn, a place where we can all be ourselves, speak and dance our truth, and be received not only without judgment but also with joy. Susan Katz gives us a vision of a unique holy place where unconventional celebrants unite body and soul, ecstasy and wisdom.
With flowing, lyrical prose, Susan Katz drew me into another world, another person’s life, and then another. She invited me to listen to despair, to hear a cry for escape, to watch someone find the road to oneself, to explore and experience their journey—and my own. She helped me look beyond the pole and see the dance.
An exuberant and glorious celebration of the human spirit, of tenacity, and of the will to heal and transform by facing and overcoming trauma through community and dance. The language in this wonderful novel leaps across the page in a joyful affirmation of hope.
Katz delves beyond the stage-lit veneers of men and women, uncovering the forces that draw them to reveal themselves through pole dance, the liberation they find in community, and the restrictions endured by the women who raised them.