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“Erma Bombeck meets Dorothy Parker in this topical and often laugh-out-loud funny take on our modern malaise.”

That’s how Kirkus Reviews describes Annabelle Gurwitch’s newest book, You’re Leaving When? Adventures in Downward Mobility. The paperback version releases March 8.

“Gurwitch possesses an appealingly cockeyed sense of humor, and she offers incisive takes on consumer culture and our contemporary confusions and lighthearted (though pointed) opinions on the travails that beset many middle-age women,” according to Kirkus Reviews. “In a consistently engaging narrative rich with personal anecdotes, the author pokes fun at her misadventures in love, work and home maintenance, but she also addresses other pressing matters — economic vulnerability in the gig economy, social inequities, raising nonbinary children, friendship, homelessness, wellness fads, the challenges of a life in the arts and the mysteries of Zoom — with a similarly breezy touch that is surprisingly effective.”

A 2020 keynoter who is returning to be part of the faculty at the Oct. 20-24 Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop, Annabelle is an actress, activist and New York Times bestselling author of I See You Made an Effort (a Thurber Prize finalist). Other books include Wherever You Go, There They Are; You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up (with Jeff Kahn); and Fired! (also a Showtime Comedy Special).

She’s written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Oprah Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and Hadassah Magazine, among other publications. She is currently adapting You're Leaving When? for HBO with Bill Maher executive producing, centering on her Los Angeles Times op-ed about hosting an at-risk housing insecure couple in her home. That piece was recognized with a 2020 Los Angeles Press Club excellence in journalism award.

Annabelle was the longtime co-host of Dinner & a Movie on TBS; a regular commentator on NPR; host of WA$TED for the Discovery Channel, the news anchor of HBO’s award-winning Not Necessarily the News and a resident humorist for TheNation.com. Her acting credits include: Seinfeld, Murphy Brown, Boston Legal, Dexter and Melvin Goes to Dinner.

She performs on the Moth Mainstage, Carolines on Broadway and at arts centers around the country. She also co-hosts the "Tiny Victories" podcast on the Maximum Fun Podcast Network, which Vulture called a “bright spot of light and laughter in 2020.”