Lisa Cheek, in conversation with Samantha Dunn, discusses & signs The Big Day: Saying I Do Only to Discover I Didn't - Another M

For fans of Sloane Crosley, another mostly true memoir from the acclaimed author of Sit, Cinderella, Sit about whether she's finally ready for marriage before she turns fifty. For years, Lisa Cheek believed commitment wasn't in her genes. Her dating patterns were clear--date a lot and widely, but never settle down. When anyone wanted to marry her, she backed away. So even she is surprised when, at forty-nine, she finally says "yes" to a proposal and commits fully to her boyfriend, Big Johnson. But when she finds out on their wedding day, after the vows, that they aren't actually married, she hesitates. Should she take this as a sign to run while she still can? In The Big Day, Lisa Cheek invites us to witness her wedding day, with all its hilarity, chaos, and unexpected turns. Throughout, she reviews both her past relationships and the marriages of her family and friends, analyzing the choices of others and reliving the biggest ups and downs of her own love life. Ultimately, she must decide once and for all whether she's just not marriage material--or if she's finally found a love worth staying for. Lisa Cheek is an author and former film and television editor known for her humorous, candid writing about relationships and identity. Her debut memoir, Sit, Cinderella, Sit, was a People Magazine pick, an Amazon bestseller, and a Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist, and was named one of Zibby Media’s Most Anticipated Books of 2025. Her latest memoir, The Big Day, is a funny, unflinching look at love, marriage, and the complicated question of whether to stay or walk away. You can find her musings at One Minute Thoughts From A Pink Head on Substack. She lives in Los Angeles with two dogs, two cats, and her husband, Big Johnson, where she has several scripts in various stages of development while working on her next memoir. Samantha Dunn is a senior editor at the Southern California News Group, which publishes the Orange County Register and the LA Daily News, among area newspapers. For the news group, she also produces the virtual program BOOKISH about authors, thinkers and the literary life. The author of several books, including the novel Failing Paris, the bestselling memoir, Not By Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life, and Faith in Carlos Gomez, Sam’s writing has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in journalism, the PEN Award in fiction, and has won numerous journalism awards. You can find her work anthologized in a number of places, including the short story anthology, Women on the Edge: Writing from Los Angeles, which she co-edited. A well-known instructor of writing, she teaches creative nonfiction at Chapman University, privately, and through the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers with Pam Houston.