Work to Do (University of Iowa, April 7, 2026) is the first novel by Jules Wernersbach, founder of Hive Mind Books, a queer independent bookstore in Bushwick, Brooklyn, N.Y. The book follows Eleanor, who established the Guadalupe Street Co-op in Austin, Tex., in the early 1980s, when she was in her mid-20s and madly in love with her girlfriend, Meg. But after only a year, Meg bolted, leaving Eleanor with a struggling business and an angry, unhealing wound.
Forty years later, Guadalupe Street Co-op has a loyal customer base, an antiquated business model, and a disgruntled staff. Roz, one of the store's senior managers, is too caught up stalking her ex-wife online to notice that her girlfriend, Molly, is plotting with her coworkers to unionize. Roz also doesn't see that Molly is not-so-secretly in a situationship with Randy, the dairy manager leading their collective.
Unfolding over the course of a single week during Texas hurricane season, Work to Do pings between the co-op's first year and the present day, as the unionization bid reaches fever pitch. The wind howls, the power goes out, and water creeps through the front door, as questions of who owns the grocery store and who has a right to its future are posed. And will the workers ever be paid enough to buy the organic groceries they shelve?