Tag Archives: reading

HORSE SHOW @ Art On The Saddle, 6/8/24!

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be returning to Columbia, MO this June for another reading, this time with a real live horse in attendance!

This one’s at a much earlier hour, and for a most excellent cause: I’m joining the program for Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center‘s first-ever Art On The Saddle Fundraiser at Ozark Mountain Biscuit Company‘s outdoor “Bullpen” on 6/8/24!

The party starts at 4 PM. And when we say party, we mean it! There will be food, craft beer from Logboat Brewing Company, live music by Mr. Fun, a real live therapy horse on-site for cuddles and photos (who will it be?!), and an auction of nine saddles repurposed into one-of-a-kind works of art by local Columbia artists! Check out my favorite below–Lisa Bartlett used found objects to transform an English saddle into a whimsical moth that’ll look incredible on someone’s wall!

Lisa Bartlett’s “Moth,” one of nine objets d’art on offer!

I’m not sure when exactly I’ll be reading, but it’ll be something “family friendly” from HORSE SHOW. I’ll also have copies on hand for sale and signing, with all proceeds going to CCTRC!

Cedar Creek was founded in 1988 and provides comprehensive equine-assisted therapy to more than 150 individuals per year. All classes include instructors that are certified by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH). Cedar Creek is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization and does not receive any United Way, state or federal funding, but instead relies on the generosity of the community to help children, adults, and veterans with special needs experience the benefits of horsemanship.

Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center is my favorite place on the entire planet, my new cat’s name is literally “Ozark Mountain Biscuit Company” (Oz for short), and it’s cicada summer in Missouri, so if you’re local, I can’t think of any reason why you shouldn’t come have a beer in the sun for my very favorite cause: connecting humans who need horses with horses who need humans!

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HORSE SHOW Launch Party @ Atomic Books! 4/14/24! Plus Pre-Order Signed Copies From Anywhere!

I’m ridiculously stoked and grateful that my friends at total Baltimore icon Atomic Books will host my East Coast launch party from 4 PM – 5 PM on 4/14/24!

My Baltimorean friends have an inkling about what this bookstore (and city!) means to me. When I was moonlighting as an arts/music/books critic for Baltimore City Paper (R.I.P.), booksellers and general badasses Rachel Whang and Benn Ray welcomed this cocky twentysomething writer kid who dreamed aloud about publishing a book cool enough to be sold at Atomic Books someday.

That day has come! And I’m so excited! Because it’s been forever, Baltimore!

I hope you’ll all come on down, bring your friends, and buy a hot-off-the-press copy of HORSE SHOW from the greatest bookstore on Earth. I’ll even sign it for you!

There’s good news for everyone who isn’t anywhere near Atomic Books, too. Since I’ll be at the store to sign books just a few days after release, you can now pre-order a signed copy of HORSE SHOW from Atomic Books, and they’ll ship it right to your door! Click this link to get yours!

More book tour-ish news to come soon! I have a few readings in the works for St. Louis and more to come elsewhere later this spring/summer. Am I coming to your town? Watch this space!

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AWP Recap & A New Interview

AWP ’24 was my favorite AWP ever, I must say.

It wasn’t my first AWP, but it was the first where I had a book to sell, a press to represent my work, and an off-site event to read it at, which made a huge difference in how being at the conference felt. I had things to do beyond wandering around aimlessly searching for my friends and something to eat! Though I did a fair amount of that, too, natch–it’s the AWP way.

Santa Fe Writers Project‘s booth, shared with the incredible Whiskey Tit Books, was hopping with signings by fellow SFWP writers Monica Prince, Steve Eoannou, Charles Jensen, Lilly Dancyger, Wendy J. Fox, Elizabeth Gonzalez James, Ted O’Connell, and Andrew Gifford.

HORSE SHOW on the SFWP table!

I sold all 50 advance copies of HORSE SHOW (!!!), signed a bunch, and met many fellow introverts who are excited about books, specifically my book, which was a joy and a shock, like being plunged into an ice bath after a long hot day. Thank you to everyone who came by to say hello!

The good people at Laurel Review and SEMO Press (which is being shut down, along with Big Muddy, in a shortsighted and stupid blow to arts and letters) hosted an off-site reading at Cinder Block Brewery in North KC. I read part of “Based On A True Story,” which is probably the finest short story you’ll read all year about the 1976 John Travolta vehicle The Boy In The Plastic Bubble.

The cherry hard cider was delicious, the crowd was great, and I had a blast hearing fellow Midwest fictioneers Luke Rolfes, Ron Austin, James Brubaker, Khem Aryal, and Robert Long Foreman rock the mic, even if Travis Kelce and T-Swift skipped our party for some “big game” I heard was happening in Las Vegas. Their loss!

HORSE SHOW’s out 4/9/24, so advance press is coming out. Here’s an interview with me by A.A. Balaskovits in Full Stop earlier this week–we talked about women and violence and animals, as well as how the order of the stories in HORSE SHOW came to be.

HORSE SHOW is still, of course of course, available for pre-order wherever books are sold–but if you have to choose, might I recommend bookshop.org or direct from my press at SFWP?

Book tour updates soon!

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