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September 21, 2020

Out now: Lyrics for Rock Stars by Heather Sappenfield

Heather Sappenfield’s short story collection Lyrics for Rock Stars, winner of the V Press LC Compilation Book Prize, is out today – congratulations, Heather!

In Lyrics for Rock Stars, Heather Mateus Sappenfield has drawn a map of the Colorado mountains and written a legend that describes the inner workings of its people’s hearts.
—Camille T. Dungy

Stepping into the stories in Lyrics for Rock Stars is like stepping into lives you already know, people you’ve lived with, or if you don’t know them already, you’ll wish you did. Writing about the inhabitants of landscapes she knows by heart, Sappenfield makes her people come alive on the page and you’ll turn each of those pages hoping for them, pulling for them, realizing, slowly, that their lives are our own.

—Pete Fromm

August 28, 2020

“I can’t just be hopeful for the sake of it” – Jenny Offill on Weather

by Laura Breitenbeck in News

I can’t just be hopeful for the sake of it. I find that I have to figure out actions that feel like they create a less precarious life for the future. So for me that has meant that I wrote this novel, which I was never intending to write about the climate when I first began it. And also that — I’m a pretty introverted person, as most writers are — but I’ve pushed myself a little bit to do more activism. That, for me, has been an antidote to the dread and a hopeful thing.

Jenny Offill talks about her novel Weather with NPR’s A Word on Words, here.

August 21, 2020

Out now: Wiving by Caitlin Myer

by Laura Breitenbeck in News

Wiving is a wonder, a hypnotic account of the dangers of desire–specifically female desire–when it dares to run counter to all the barriers that were created to keep such passions in their place. Myer’s self-examination and honesty go way past brave and into a dizzying kind of free-fall confession. When I finished this, I felt heart-broken to know what finally ‘shook her free.’ Highly recommended.”–Glen David Gold, author of Carter Beats the Devil and I Will Be Complete

Alum Caitlin Myer’s memoir Wiving: A Memoir of Loving Then Leaving the Partiarchy is out now! Buy it from our friends at Point Reyes Books, or read a review in the San Francisco Chronicle.

August 17, 2020

“Everything’s Fine” by Bea Chang

by Laura Breitenbeck in News

2. Two months ago, Broad Street Magazine invited past contributors to add to its pandemic blog. I dismissed the invitation almost right away; I am a slow, painfully meticulous writer. An example: I am currently working on an essay about 9/11. So I figured that by the time I was “done” with my coronavirus ramblings, some semblance of normalcy would have resumed.

3. Yet, here we are.

Thirty-one paragraphs about quarantine and sports by Bea Chang, at Broad Street.

August 14, 2020

Maaza Mengiste this Sunday at Edinburgh International Book Festival

by Laura Breitenbeck in News

If you’re online this Sunday, August 16, you can catch Maaza Mengiste in conversation with John Williams, Douglas Stuart, and Paul Mendez for an Edinburgh International Book Festival event sponsored by The New York Times Book Review. They’ll be “coming together to discuss their work, and how they’re trying to make sense of the mess we’re in. They talk about what they’re reading and recommending, from books for comfort to works that have made them change their minds.” The event is free, starting at 12:30 PM EST (5:30 PM BST) and you can find out more about it here.