Spin Cycle is a powerful upmarket literary debut that will resonate with fans of Little Fires Everywhere, The Berry Pickers, and Signal Fires. Set between two rundown laundromats in the rural Midwest and Texas, the novel follows Laura Lennard, a teenager navigating the emotional fallout of an unplanned pregnancy and a fraught open adoption with a wealthy, politically connected couple. As Laura tries to maintain a connection to her son, she carves out an unexpected path running a commercial laundry business—finding both purpose and purgatory in the ritual of washing other people’s messes.

With emotional nuance and moral complexity, Spin Cycle explores the intersections of class, reproductive choice, and the quiet resilience of women remaking their lives. It is a deeply intimate story about motherhood, identity, and the bonds we forge—and break—in our search for belonging.

Written by Chicago-based author Kelly Kerwin, Spin Cycle is rooted in lived experience and shaped by a voice both clear-eyed and compassionate. Developed through StoryStudio Chicago’s Novel in a Year, the Ragdale Retreat, and other intensives, this novel invites book club discussion and introspection alike—and marks the beginning of a compelling new literary voice.