What will Kentucky Book Festival visitors find on your table?
Copies of my short story collection, How We Fracture, which won the Rosemary Daniell Fiction Prize, and was released by Minerva Rising Press in January 2024. In case someone is more interested in poetry, I will have copies of the following poetry collections published by Dos Madres Press: Swim Your Way Back (2014), A Map and One Year (2018), Where Wind Tastes Like Pears (2021). I will also have a box of free bookmarks.
Whom do you invite to stop by? Who will benefit from reading your book?
Fellow readers and writers, aspiring writers, someone who has questions about writing or publishing, someone who wants to buy books as gifts for themselves or others. I believe any of the above would benefit from reading the stories in How We Fracture. It’s a collection of modern-day stories told from female points-of-view of teenage to women in their fifties and sixties at moments of fracture involving financial instability, reproductive rights, body image, sexuality and sexual orientation, relationships, addiction, loss, aging, and mental health. The main characters are students, visual artists, fashion designers, a legal secretary, house sitter, vet assistant, jewelry maker, a collector of miniatures, a nurse, and a breath facilitator. Most of the stories are set in Kentucky, braided with imagery of how we are connected to, and nourished by, the natural world.
Could you please tell us something curious about you and/or your book?
Several of the short stories in How We Fracture take place in unusual settings: a nudist camp, a walk-in closet, a gas station restroom, an arboretum, and a doctor’s office.
Is this your first time participating in Kentucky Book Festival? If yes – what are you looking forward to the most? If you’ve participated before – what was your favorite experience at the Festival?
Yes, this is my first time, but I’ve been dreaming of participating for years. I’m looking forward to talking to book-lovers and authors, and getting them interested in buying one or more of my books. I also hope to attend some of the main speaking events, if possible, and I’d love to be able to read an excerpt from my short story collection, How We Fracture.
