Left Bank Books has been my favorite independent bookstore since I was a kid and they do such wonderful work in St. Louis, which now includes putting on BookFest St. Louis each fall. I’m beyond thrilled to join the lineup of this fall’s #BookFestSTL, which includes readings and panels by Sally Field, Gary Shteyngart, Sarah Kendzior, and Tessa Fontaine, among many others. I’ll be discussing literary fiction on a panel with Rebecca Makkai and Blair Hurley on Saturday, September 22, with more details to come. See you in September, St. Louis!

I’m tremendously grateful for my short story, “Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down,” which first appeared in Iron Horse Literary Review in 2014 and eventually became my debut novel, to be included in the just-released Best of Iron Horse Literary Review issue. This issue celebrates the journal’s twenty years with the editors’ favorite pieces of short fiction, non-fiction and poetry that they’ve published across two decades, and I’m so honored for this story to appear in these pages alongside six other stories by writers such as Lucas Southworth, Gina Ochsner and E.M. Tran. Many, many thanks to founder and editor Leslie Jill Patterson, who is one of the most generous, hardworking, supportive and passionate people in the entire literary world. This issue is gorgeous, and I’m beyond delighted to be included!

I have a new essay, “The Male Gaze: Objectification in the Narrative World,” up today at Catapult. This essay constellates the male gaze in film, in writing and teaching, and also in nature. In the midst of writing fiction, I’ve been thinking a lot about objectification, power, complicity and pain. Many, many thanks to editor Mensah Demary for publishing this piece.

I am delighted to have been chosen as a mentor for AWP’s Writer to Writer Mentorship Program this spring. The program began this past week, and I’m so excited to be working with Christina Consolino on short fiction, novel-writing and publishing. Many, many thanks to AWP’s Diane Zinna for pairing us together!

While I’ve mostly been novel-writing as of late, I have a new essay, “No Girls Allowed,” up at Fairy Tale Review about the Berenstain Bears book of the same name. This was one of my favorite books when I was little, and rereading it as an adult, I was shocked by its messaging regarding gender roles. This essay is about the book, and also about the same messaging in literary and academic worlds. Many thanks to editor Joel Hans for publishing it!

I’m delighted to be reading at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference in Tampa on Thursday, March 8 with a lineup of amazing, fabulist writers. Please join me and Sequoia Nagamatsu, Adrienne Celt, Tessa Mellas, Jason Teal, Daniel Hoyt, Dana Diehl, Anca Szilagyi and Melissa Goodrich at the 5 Star Dive Bar from 7-9 p.m.

I’ll also be serving on a panel the following day, Friday, March 9, at the AWP Conference on the teaching of undergraduate creative writing with Laura Van Den Berg, Kirstin Valdez Quade, Shane McCrae, and Sequoia Nagamatsu. Please join us at 12-1:15 p.m. in the Marriott Waterside’s Meeting Room 4!

This week, I’m visiting my home state as part of the annual Missouri Author Series, which brings in writers who are from or who write about Missouri. It’s a true honor to have the chance to read at several Missouri universities from a novel set in Missouri, and as someone who grew up here. I read last night at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, which was such an amazing evening and event, and today I’m headed to the University of Central Missouri as part of the Pleiades Visiting Writers Series. Tomorrow, I head to the University of Missouri, and on Friday I’ll be in Springfield at Missouri State University as part of the Moon City Press Reading Series. Many, many thanks for Brad Modlin, Michael Czyzniejewski, Phong Nguyen, Jenny Molberg, and everyone at each of these institutions for a week of fantastic events.

Since I’ve largely been working on novels for the past two years, I wrote one short story last year and am absolutely delighted for it to appear in the new issue of Pleiades, a literary journal I’ve long admired. The story, “Here is Night, Brothers, Here the Birds Burn,” is about a grief-stricken man who visits the Lemp Mansion in St. Louis for a haunted tour after hearing the voices of his deceased family members on sound recordings of birds. The story appears alongside new work by Brenda Peynado, Micah Dean Hicks, David James Poissant, Matthew Minicucci, Susannah Nevison and Brian Brodeur, among others. Many, many thanks to editors Phong Nguyen and Jenny Molberg for including this story in the issue!

Despite the bomb cyclone that blasted New York City this week with snow and frigid wind, CJ Hauser and I had a wonderful time this past Sunday night at KGB Bar in Manhattan. The theme was “resolutions” to kick of the new year, and we each read short pieces on this theme before both reading for the first time publicly from our new/forthcoming novels. It was a great evening – many, many thanks to Suzanne Dottino for inviting us to read!

Happy New Year, and Happy 2018! With the paperback of Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down releasing this past month, I have a few readings and events this winter including a kick-off this coming weekend at KGB Bar in New York with novelist CJ Hauser. Then later this January, I’ll be traveling to a few universities in my home state of Missouri through the Missouri Author Series. If you are in any of these cities, I look forward to seeing you! I also have a new, monthly TinyLetter publishing at the start of each month, the latest of which was sent out yesterday. Wishing you a very happy January and 2018!