A lively discussion of speculative fiction last night during the All But True reading series at Penn Book Center. Authors A.C. Wise (left) and Sarah Pinsker shared their recent work and then engaged with an audience of 25-30 enthusiastic readers and writers. The event was hosted by Miriam Seidel.

(Apologies for the lousy camera. Gotta put out some bucks for a new phone.)

We'll soon be posting details of the next reading, December 12, with flash fiction authors Tori Bond and Nathan Alling Long.

Just in time for Halloween, the All But True series presents two new and provocative novels, by authors A.C. Wise and Sarah Pinsker, that explore the frightful things that may lurk closer than we realize.

SARAH PINSKER’s near-future debut novel, A SONG FOR A NEW DAY, follows two women: Luce, a musician who can’t perform openly since public gatherings have been banned, and Rosemary, who’s too young to remember how it was Before: before the mass epidemic and violence that led to the circumscribed and digitized world she lives in now. The story celebrates the connective power of live music as opposed to virtual performances, and person-to-person as opposed to digital connection—a dichotomy all too familiar to us even now. This novel is one of Publishers Weekly’s “Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2019,” and Kirkus Reviews called the author “a rising star in the world of speculative fiction.”

In A.C. WISE’s CATFISH LULLABY, the back-country Louisiana bayou town of Lewis carries dark secrets in its past. When Caleb grows up to become the town’s young sheriff, he’s called on to try to untangle its mysteries, including the disturbing legend of Catfish John, a monstrous swamp creature, and whether Caleb’s strange, fragile neighbor Cere can overcome what appears to be her family’s evil destiny. Wise gives voice to the unheard with language that sears and soars in this tale of “cosmic horror.” Says Mike Allen, a World Fantasy Award–nominated author, "CATFISH LULLABY demonstrates the many ways saviors and devils can occupy the same body.”

The event includes readings, discussion, book signings, and free snacks. 

Is it just us, or does it seem like the entire U.S. culture lacks maturity? Why are social media, politics, TV, even sometimes academia so ultra-juvenile? [Note to self: Do not refer to the White House.]
 
In the next installment of the All But True series, on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, two grown-up authors depict the lives of protagonists who struggle to reach emotional maturity even long after they can buy a legal drink.
 
In NONE OF THE ABOVE, author Michael Cocchiarale gives us 27 years in the life of an earnest Midwesterner, Increase “Ink” Alt, from childhood into his thirties. Like so many of us, Ink has trouble figuring out where he fits in the world. He constantly struggles to keep up with more sophisticated peers, and yet the reader sees that most of them aren’t good role models for him. Even when Ink returns to his hometown as a highly educated adult, he still has much to learn about himself. Trials and traumas put his maturity to the test in ways he never expected.
 
In THE MINORS by Chris Ludovici, both protagonists have to work on their maturity. One is Samantha “Sam” Heller, a teenager whose father has left to start a new job. Supposedly the family will join him soon, but the situation gets complicated, in part because of Nick Rogers, a 28-year-old contractor hired to fix up the house before it’s put on the market. Nick, a failed minor-league baseball player and habitual screw-up, gets drawn into being a confidant to the mother and a substitute dad for Sam and her younger brother—challenging roles for which he’s not at all prepared. In this novel all the characters need to grow up, and the author describes their difficult paths—full of betrayals, angst, and a few bloody knuckles—with both insight and compassion.

By coincidence, both of these books are published by Unsolicited Press in Portland, Oregon. You may want to check out their website.
 
The program starts at 6:30 p.m. at Penn Book Center, 34th & Sansom Streets in West Philly, adjacent to the University of Pennsylvania. As always, the event includes author readings, discussion, book signings, and free refreshments.
 
If we aren’t mature after this event, we will go home and listen to NPR.

Religion and spiritual tradition, and the way they affect our identities, are difficult subjects to tackle in fiction. But the January 30 All But True reading features two novels that do exactly that, in very different ways.

In Faint Promise of Rain, Anjali Mitter Duva takes us to the Rajasthan desert in 1554. On a rare night of rain, a daughter, Adhira, is born to a family of Hindu temple dancers. Fearing a bleak future, her father puts his faith in tradition: he insists Adhira “marry” the temple deity and give herself to a wealthy patron. But after one terrible evening, she makes a life-altering choice. Filled with the sounds, sights, and flavors of the Indian desert, Faint Promise of Rain is the story of a family caught between art, duty, and fear in a changing world. The novel was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Fiction and the Chaucer Award for Historical Fiction.

“Describes the sacred dances so vividly that the reader can almost hear the dancers’ feet hitting the floor and the tinkling of ankle bells.” —Library Journal

In They: A Biblical Tale of Secret Genders, Janet Mason offers characters from the Hebrew Bible—reinterpreted. Tamar lives with her pet camel in the desert, content with her life and happily barren. But her twin sister, Tabitha, becomes pregnant after seducing a muscular young shepherd. Tamar plots with Tabitha to trick the patriarch Judah into believing that the baby is his so that the mother can have status in society rather than being burnt at the stake. Then Tabitha gives birth to twins, who are both intersex. As Auntie Tamar becomes deeply involved in the children’s lives, the story’s sly humor sheds light on our own often-complex identities.

Janet Mason’s previous book, Tea Leaves, a memoir of mothers and daughters (Bella Books, 2012), received a Goldie Award and was chosen by the American Library Association for its 2013 Over the Rainbow list. Janet is also the author of three books of poetry.

The program starts at 6:30 p.m. at Penn Book Center, 34th & Sansom Streets in West Philly, adjacent to the University of Pennsylvania. The event includes author readings, discussion, book signings, and refreshments.

NEW DATE!
Tuesday, December 11, 2018, 6 p.m.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

​Just in time for holiday shopping, the All But True series returns with two authors who specialize in magical thrillers for young adults.

In Nova Ren Suma’s A Room Away from the Wolves, Bina is on the road, with an old suitcase, a black eye, and a humming sense of betrayal. She’s fleeing trouble at home including two hostile stepsisters, and heading for a young women’s residence in Greenwich Village. But Catherine House has its own tragic history and dark, magical secrets, and once there, Bina must struggle to untangle the truths and lies of her own past. Heart-pounding and atmospheric, this is an updated gothic ghost story from a #1 New York Times bestselling author.

In The Spy with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke, Ilse and Wolf Klein share a secret ability to work magic with their blood. The brother and sister are blackmailed into using their gifts during World War II—Ilse to help develop the atomic bomb in the US, and Wolf to sabotage Germany’s nuclear program. Loyalties and identities are tested in this sweeping, fast-paced fantasy and thriller that bravely explores the tensions at the dawn of the nuclear age—a companion book to Locke’s award-winning The Girl with the Red Balloon.

In a world that seems too absurd to be true, is there still a use for satire?

In the September 2018 All But True event (Wednesday, 9/26, 6 p.m.), two gifted authors take cutting looks at contemporary life. Their books alternate satire and poignancy, deeply felt scenes and laugh-out-loud passages. They delve into both the mysteries and the ridiculousness of our skewed contemporary life.
 
THE GLITCH by Elisabeth Cohen is a send-up of tech life and its frenzied have-it-all culture. Shelley Stone, a super-efficient Silicon Valley CEO and mother of two, thinks she has everything under control. She takes power naps while waiting in line and schedules sex with her husband for when they’re already changing clothes. But when she meets a young woman also named Shelley Stone who has the exact same scar on her shoulder, Shelley has to wonder: Is she finally buckling under the pressure?

​Kathy Anderson’s BULL AND OTHER STORIES (winner of the Autumn House Fiction Prize) mixes dark humor with raw moments of pain and misunderstanding. Focusing on characters whose predicaments are typically ignored—a funeral driver, a lesbian power couple, a boy upset that his father has become a woman—she pulls us into situations that are just far enough beyond the conventional to intrigue and disturb us. Are these lives tipping into farce or tragedy—or both?

The event includes author readings, discussion, book signings, and refreshments. The venue is the Penn Book Center, 34th & Sansom Streets in West Philly, adjacent to the University of Pennsylvania.

If the juxtapositions in the composite image feel a bit unsettling, that's appropriate, because the next All But True reading, on June 6 at 6 p.m.,  features two just-released novels about mass shootings. Both are by acclaimed writers. Both are tough and strong—yet they’re different in many ways.

For such a terrible subject, it may seem odd to turn to novels for insight. But fiction writers often have a way of cutting through the chatter and hysteria to expose deeper underlying truths about our psychology, our society, our illnesses.
 
IF WE HAD KNOWN by Elise Juska takes us to a small town in rural Maine, where Maggie Daley, a single mother and English professor, learns that a former student of hers has shot four people at a mall. Then a post on social media claims that an essay he wrote in her class contained red flags. Is she responsible? In the growing media storm she must make choices that threaten not only her own well-being but her daughter’s as well.
 
“A tender, whip-smart meditation on the origins and aftermath of tragedy. Here Juska asks us an important and quietly devastating question: In what ways are we responsible to and for each other?” —Carmen Maria Machado, author of HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES
 
“Well-written, realistic, and suspenseful to the point of dread.” --KIRKUS REVIEWS
 
Tom McAllister’s HOW TO BE SAFE similarly focuses on the aftermath of a mass shooting, and the main character is also an accused educator—but the novel takes a radically different tone than Juska’s. Protagonist Anna Crawford has a long history with abusive men. A heavy drinker, she’s sardonic and slightly mad herself. When the town’s mania subjects her to jeers, threats, and relentless judgment, Anna’s response amounts to a wild and piercing feminist howl. There are many moments of exquisite dark humor as the novel dissects the hypocrisy of America’s gun culture.
 
“McAllister delivers here a portrait of a nation vibrating with failure and humiliation.… The writing sears—and reminds us of literature’s power to fill a void that no amount of inhaling the vapors of Twitter will satisfy.” —Lauren Mechling, NEW YORK TIMES
 
“A blistering, Swiftian portrait of a nation that has lost its moral center, this book is compelling from start to finish. Enthusiastically recommended for fans of literary fiction, psychological drama, and dystopian fiction.” --LIBRARY JOURNAL
 
The event includes author readings, discussion, book signings, and refreshments. The location is the wonderful Penn Book Center, 34th & Sansom Streets in West Philly, adjacent to the University of Pennsylvania.

Next up in the ALL BUT TRUE reading series:

SHORT AND STRANGE: Flash Fiction with a Surreal Twist
featuring Sebastian Castillo and Sharon White
Thursday, April 19, 2018, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Penn Book Center, 130 S. 34th Street, Philadelphia

Both of these authors use the short-short-story form to explore surreal situations that bear a provocative resemblance to our "ordinary" world.

Sebastian Castillo's 49 VENEZUELAN NOVELS confounds readers' expectations by stripping the novel down to its barest bones. Each novel occupies a single page. Some consist of a single sentence. Yet Castillo draws on the power of innuendo, intimation, and absence to create narratives eerily rich in their sparseness. Castillo was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and grew up in New York. Said Blake Butler, author of 300,000,000, “Sebastian Castillo’s micro-fictional assemblages invoke a logical illogic wherein nothing is untrue or impossible, secrets have secrets, and any sentence can change the world.... A magical, medicinal mini-encyclopedia for our ongoing human rune.”

Sharon White, a multi-award-winning poet and author of creative nonfiction, turns to fiction with the inventive BOILING LAKE (ON VOYAGE), micro-tales of travel to the past, present, future--and other worlds. White’s exquisite prose and off-kilter juxtapositions turn even familiar territory strange and unsettling. “With mad singing in strange lands and familiar places, these tiny stories speak a language of dark lyricism,” says Amy Parkison, author of THE PETALS OF YOUR EYES. White's awards include include the Italo Calvino Prize in Fabulist Fiction, the Marguerite McGlinn Prize for Fiction from Philadelphia Stories, the Neil Shepard Prize in Fiction from Green Mountains Review, a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship for Creative Nonfiction, the Leeway Foundation Award for Achievement, a Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

The event includes author readings, discussion, book signings, and (following our tradition) lots of snacks.

Note the new location: Penn Book Center, 34th & Sansom Streets in West Philly, adjacent to the University of Pennsylvania.

Congratulations to Erin Entrada Kelly, who appeared in the All But True series in September 2017.

The novel she read from, Hello, Universe, has just won the Newbery Medal for the outstanding children’s book of 2017!

Here's the news release:
http://ala.unikron.com/2018/

Coming next in the All But True series, on Thursday, November 16, 2017, at 7:00 p.m.: Generations of Immigrants, a program featuring novelists Rahul Mehta and Annie Liontas.

NO OTHER WORLD by RAHUL MEHTA is a coming-of-age story set in a small community in western New York. Kiran Shah, the American-born son of Indian immigrants, struggles to find both his cultural place and his sexual identity. His parents, meanwhile, go through their own difficult adaptations, and Kiran’s sister Preeti is traumatized by a racist boyfriend in an incident he thinks he could have mitigated. Haunted by guilt and shame, he travels to India, where he finds himself strangely affected by a teenage hijra, a member of India’s ancient transgender community. Under her influence, he begins to make sense of his troubled life.

“NO OTHER WORLD is deeply satisfying, a novel so moving that I worried about its main characters for weeks after I finished reading it. Rahul Mehta is a writer with astonishing emotional subtlety and generosity; I loved this beautiful book.” (Lauren Groff, author of FATES AND FURIES)

LET ME EXPLAIN YOU by ANNIE LIONTAS is an unforgettable novel about a Greek American family and its enigmatic patriarch. Stavros Stavros Mavrakis, Greek immigrant and proud owner of the Gala Diner, believes he has just ten days to live. As he prepares for his final hours, he sends a scathing email to his ex-wife and three grown daughters, outlining his wishes for how they each might better live their lives. With varying degrees of laughter and scorn, his family and friends dismiss his behavior, but when Stavros disappears, those closest to him are forced to confront the possibility of his death. The novel is told from multiple perspectives: Stavros himself, brimming with pride and cursing in broken English; his eldest daughter Stavroula, a talented chef in love with her boss’s daughter; her sister, the wounded but resilient Litza; and many other voices who compose a veritable Greek chorus.

“Pitch perfect ... very much alive” (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE)
“The novel’s true heart is one filled with love and forgiveness” (MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE)
 
The event includes discussion, book signings, and free snacks.

Mighty Writers West is at 3861 Lancaster Avenue (corner of 39th Street) in West Philly. Phone: 267-244-4005.