July 26, 2013 7:00 am | Tags: Chicago, Readings, Strategies Against Extinction | No Comments
This Sunday night at 7 pm, I’m reading with three other writers in the Sunday Salon Series in Chicago. A few months ago, I read in the Sunday Salon Series in NYC, and I’m sure this one will be just as much fun.
This reading is free and open to the public. You should attend! The event details are here. And if you don’t feel like clicking the link, Black Rock Pub is located at 3614 N. Damen in the Windy City, and the event is from 7 to 9 pm. We’ll read for about fifteen minutes per reader (there are four of us) and I’ll have copies of my book available for sale. My book comes with a free beer koozie. Yes, really! So you should definitely be there to snag a copy of the book and throw rotten fruit at me. Not necessarily in that order.
I’m reading with three other writers. Micki LeSueur is a freelance copywriter, writing fiction posing as non-fiction for major corporations and their advertising agencies. She writes fiction for her own amusement, and is the founder and host of Fictlicious, a live reading and music series, and its podcast series. LeSueur is also the president and founder of Coat Angels, a local not-for-profit providing warm winter coats for cold Chicago kids. Adam McOmber is the author of The White Forest (Touchstone 2012) and This New & Poisonous Air (BOA Editions 2011). His work has appeared recently in Conjunctions, The Fairy Tale Review and Third Coast. He is the associate editor of Hotel Amerika, a literary magazine at Columbia College Chicago where he also teaches literature and creative writing. Sandi Wisenberg is the author of The Sweetheart Is In, stories; Holocaust Girls, essays; and The Adventures of Cancer Bitch. In Chicago, she directs the MA/MFA in Creative Writing Program at Northwestern University. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Illinois Arts Council and Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
Basically, this reading is going to be fantastic. Come join us! I’d love to see you there.
Follow Michael on Twitter: @mpnye
June 2, 2013 5:01 pm | Tags: Book Promotion, Strategies Against Extinction | No Comments
Chuck Sambuchino, who runs the Guide to Literary Agents blog over at Writer’s Digest, asked me to contribute to his ever-growing network of writers discussing the ins and outs of publishing. I said, absolutely! He didn’t put any restrictions on what I should write about, so I ran a few things by him, and we agreed that this post that just went up Friday would be a good one.
So here’s my post 5 Easy Ways to Publicize and Promote Your Book. All of these are things that I did that, I think, worked out well for Strategies Against Extinction. Check it out!
Follow Michael on Twitter: @mpnye
March 21, 2013 8:00 am | Tags: Readings, Strategies Against Extinction, Vouched Books | No Comments
This Saturday, March 23rd, I’ll be reading from Strategies Against Extinction at Indy Reads Books. It’s a long Midwestern weekend for me. On Friday, I’m visiting my friend Ryan Stone’s class at Danville Community College in Illinois to talk short fiction and maybe get in a good knock-knock joke or two. Sadly, this is not open to the public.
But Saturday night is open to the public! You should attend! The Facebook event is here. And if you don’t feel like clicking the link, Indy Reads Books is located at 911 Massachusetts Ave in Indianapolis and our event is from 7 to 9 pm. We’ll read a bit, answer some questions, and then play foosball with all attendees. Or something.
The reading Saturday night is hosted by Vouched Books, who were super wonderful in Atlanta and will be equally terrific in Indianapolis. I’m reading with my friend Andrew Scott, the author of Naked Summer, editor at Engine Books, and though he’s a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, we still get along.
Come join us! I’d love to see you there.
Follow Michael on Twitter: @mpnye
December 19, 2012 1:58 pm | Tags: Readings, St Louis, Strategies Against Extinction | No Comments
I recently wrapped up the first two months of Strategies Against Extinction book tourin’ with a return to St. Louis, the city that was my home for six years. The River Styx reading series had been at Duff’s Restaurant for decades, but since ownership has put the restaurant up for sale, the series had to find a new home. And, it’s a beauty: Tavern of Fine Arts on Belt Avenue in the Central West End. Easily, this was my favorite reading yet, filled with old friends, past colleagues, fellow graduate students, mentors, and long time supporters of River Styx. I couldn’t have asked for a better close to the first two months of the tour.
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December 7, 2012 9:54 am | Tags: Fiction, Kyle Minor, Matt Bell, Reviews, Strategies Against Extinction | No Comments
There’s a wonderful new review of Strategies Against Extinction up at Paste Magazine, the award-winning magazine of all pop culture goodness. Her review also touches on work by Kyle Minor and Matt Bell, two writers whose books you should pick up and read immediately. It’s great to read a view that puts your work in context with other contemporary writers: none of us write in a vacuum after all, and this review draws parallels between three story collections in a way that you might not initially recognize. (more…)
November 8, 2012 7:00 am | Tags: Cincinnati, Introductions, Lisa Ampleman, Strategies Against Extinction | No Comments
When I went back to Cincinnati to promote my book, I asked my friend Lisa Ampleman to introduce me. I’ve given a few introductions myself, and heard plenty of them over the years. They aren’t easy to do. So I was really touched by what Lisa had to say about me and our friendship, and asked if I could post her intro on my blog. She said, pay me ten dollars. I said, okay.
(She really didn’t ask for ten dollars. It was fifteen)
Here’s what Lisa wrote: (more…)
October 16, 2012 12:13 pm | Tags: Readings, Strategies Against Extinction, Vouched Books | No Comments
This month I’m blogging at Vouched Books, an organization whose sole purpose is to promote small press literature. I recently wrote a post about the first two public readings I gave from Strategies Against Extinction. The first reading was before an academic audience at DePaul University in Chicago. The second was at Orr Street Studios, here in Columbia where I live, as part of the Hearing Voices/Seeing Visions series.
The full post is here at Vouched Books. While there, check out the other terrific works and Vouchin’s that Laura, Christopher, and Tyler have been doing!
Follow Michael on Twitter: @mpnye
October 9, 2012 3:55 pm | Tags: Edward Sharkey, Marie-Helene Bertino, Strategies Against Extinction | No Comments
My first book, STRATEGIES AGAINST EXTINCTION, has now been out in the world for one week since October 2nd, the “official” publication day.
For weeks now, people have been asking me how I feel about this, and for weeks, I have shrugged off the question. It’s my nature to not call attention to myself. I don’t like attention, and never have, and probably never will. I also know that talking about the book, what the stories mean to me, what questions I try to explore, is worth talking about, is incredibly important to me. I’m not, though, always sure how to approach it, how to discuss with people, even those that know me quite well, what publication of this book means. (more…)
September 26, 2012 3:19 pm | Tags: Crab Orchard Review, Projection, Strategies Against Extinction | No Comments
“Projection” is the second story in my collection. It’s about a college student, Monica, back in her home in small town Ohio the summer before she’s supposed to graduate. She works as a film projectionist in the lone movie theater in town, and she is bored and restless, a young woman yearning to leave the Midwest. This last summer, she starts a relationship with Philip, a guy a few years older than her who never escaped their home town. As the summer goes on, his behavior becomes more and more erratic, and her failed efforts to end their relationship leads to dire consequences. (more…)
September 17, 2012 7:00 am | Tags: A Fully Imagined World, Boulevard, Stories, Strategies Against Extinction | No Comments
My story “A Fully Imagined World” appears in the fall 2012 issue of Boulevard, the literary magazine out of Saint Louis University. An excerpt of the story is available on Boulevard’s website, right here. This is one of my most recent stories, one that came to me in two distinct chunks—part one at the museum, and part two at home.
Set in Cincinnati, this story is is about Kyle, a recently unemployed attorney who takes his two-year-old daughter to the Natural History Museum. While there, he sees a college fling for the first time in over a decade, and when he works up the courage to speak to her, she doesn’t remember him at all. During the course of this humiliation, Kyle loses track of his daughter, leading to a physical and existential confrontation with his wife at home.
While you can’t read the whole kit n’ kaboodle on Boulevard’s website, I do hope there is enough there for you to either 1. Order a copy of Boulevard and/or 2. Order a copy of Strategies Against Extinction. I highly recommend doing both!
Follow Michael on Twitter: @mpnye