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In September 2023, I sold my completed story collection and a novel-in-progress! From the October 2023 Publisher’s Marketplace: Author of THE BIGNESS OF THE WORLD and AFTER THE PARADE Lori Ostlund‘s ARE YOU HAPPY?, a story collection and novella that could be titled “guns, god, and gays,” which examines class, identity, and loneliness, as well as the specter of violence that hangs over women, the LBGTQ+ community, and all of us, with a novel to follow, to Emily Bell at Zando, in a two-book deal, by Henry Dunow at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (world English). UPDATE: in April 2024, both my book contracts and I followed my editor Emily Bell to Astra House. My collection will come out in March 2025.

I was one of 4 writers named as a finalist for the $50,000 prize, awarded to a writer in mid-career. “The Simpson Family Literary Project administers the prize with the collaboration of the Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation and the UC Berkeley English Department. The Simpson Project is named in honor of Barclay and Sharon Simpson and their family, philanthropists whose mission is to help artists and students and underserved children.” Info here. [repost of old post that went missing]

I loved doing this interview with Anne Raeff, my wife and first reader, for The Rumpus on the eve of the release of her Flannery O’Connor Award-winning collection, The Jungle Around Us (released October 1, 2016). I asked her about being married to another fiction writer and winning the same prize, being a self-described “bad Jew,” and learning to love cats.

With a new cover and title (Life Is a Peculiar Place), After the Parade is officially out in German!

In August, I read in my home state of Minnesota, where half of my novel is set, for the first time. I was thrilled with the Star Tribune review of After the Parade that preceded my visit: “It is the story of an American man who must come to terms with his childhood. This sad, brilliant book is for all of us. Its Minnesota moments make it especially compelling for those of us who live here, especially if we grew up in small towns, where nothing, but everything, happened to us.” Full review here.

I was delighted to be in conversation with Richard Russo discussing his new novel, EVERYBODY’S FOOL, a sequel to NOBODY’S FOOL. The Bay Area Book Festival has made a video of the conversation available here.

I had a great time at the award ceremony for the Northern California Book Awards, despite the fact that I had a terrible cold and, unfortunately, coughed my way through much of the ceremony. After the Parade did not win, but it was a pleasure to have it on the list with such great fiction titles.

… this link to my great new paperback cover! It will be out July 26, 2016!

The Publishing Triangle always does a wonderful job of calling attention to the great LGBTQ books published each year. I was so very happy to learn that After the Parade was a finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award. One of the highlights of my writing career was when The Bigness of the World received the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction in 2010. Thanks to The Publishing Triangle for everything they do to support books by and/or about GLBTQ writers.

Link here!

A spectacular list!