Eric was featured in an article by Leonard Gill in the newspaper, The Memphis Flyer, about his Memphis author reading with David Wesley Williams and Tara Mae Mulroy, on his 35-stop national book tour, which made a stop at Memphis’ Booksellers at Laurelwood:
“Good Ideas This Week at The Booksellers
How’s this for a good idea? Pair a debut novelist, who is on a cross-country book tour, with better-known local writers to round out the bill at each tour stop. That’s the idea behind the event on Wednesday, September 10th, at 6:30 p.m. at The Booksellers at Laurelwood, which will be hosting out-of-towner Eric Shonkwiler and Memphians Tara Mae Mulroy and David Wesley Williams.
You’ve heard of Southern gothic? Shonkwiler’s debut novel is called Above All Men, and it’s from MG Press, a “micro-press” and extension of the literary journal, Midwestern Gothic. For an introduction to Shonkwiler’s work, check out Above All Men here, which includes a link to an excerpt.
Local fans of local poetry should recognize the name Tara Mae Mulroy. She earned her MFA in poetry from the University of Memphis, served as managing editor of The Pinch, the U of M’s literary journal, and today teaches Latin at St. George’s Independent School. That classical background plays a major part in Mulroy’s own work. She has one chapbook, titled Philomela, and based on a report earlier this year, she has a mythologically informed (and Philomela-inspired?) full-length manuscript, Swallow Tongue, ready to shop to publishers.
Readers of The Commercial Appeal should have no trouble recognizing the byline of David Williams, because he’s the CA’s sports editor. But he’s a novelist, as well (Long Gone Daddies) and past winner of Memphis Magazine’s annual short-story contest. And if Mulroy is shopping her latest collection of poems, Williams is hard-headedly shopping his latest novel, which is set in and around Memphis and West Memphis. As he wrote in a recent email:
“I’m still trying to get a publisher for it,” Williams said of his new novel. “A few publishers, mostly smaller houses, have it, although I wouldn’t say anything is anywhere close to happening. My agent search went nowhere. Damned hard business, but I’ve got a damned hard head!”
And this week, The Booksellers has another major event planned: The night after the readings and signings by Shonkwiler, Mulroy, and Williams, the store is hosting multiple-award-winning, young-adult-fiction icon, Barbara Shoup. [...]”
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Search Tags: Eric Shonkwiler, Above All Men, Leonard Gill, The Booksellers at Laurelwood, Memphis Flyer, Tara Mae Mulroy, David Wesley Williams
