Eric was featured in an article in the newspaper, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, about his St. Louis author reading with Fred Venturini, Scott Phillips, and James Brubaker, on his 35-stop national book tour, which made a stop at St Louis’ Book House, Inc.:
“LOCAL AUTHOR READING: ERIC SHONKWILER, SCOTT PHILLIPS, FRED VENTURINI, & JAMES BRUBAKER
Local authors Scott Phillips and James Brubaker and Midwest author Fred Venturini, join author Eric Shonkwiler on his St. Louis book tour stop in support of his debut novel, Above All Men, released earlier this year from MG Press. The free reading event will take place at The Book House, 7352 Manchester Road in Maplewood, on Thursday, September 11th, at 7 p.m. All of the authors will read from their own current work, and books will be available for purchase and signing.
Eric Shonkwiler has had writing appear in Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, Fiddleblack, [PANK] Magazine, Midwestern Gothic, and elsewhere. He received his MFA in Fiction from University of California–Riverside, where he was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellowship Award. His debut novel, Above All Men, chosen as a 2014 Midwest Connections Pick by the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association, is about a farmer with PTSD struggling to keep his family and farm together in the wake of a near-future economic collapse and in the face of Steinbeckian dust storms, murder, and lawlessness unseen since the Wild West.
Scott Phillips was born and raised in Kansas, and lived for many years in France. The author of eight book-length works of fiction, he also works as a screenwriter. His first novel, The Ice Harvest, won the California Book Award for Best First Fiction, and was made into a feature film directed by Harold Ramis and starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Connie Nielsen. Phillips’ latest novel, Hop Alley, continues the story of an earlier novel, Cottonwood, returning readers to the Wild West with familiar characters living near the part of town known as Hop Alley in the frontier town of Denver in 1878.
Fred Venturini grew up in Patoka, Illinois. His short fiction has been published in Noir at the Bar 2 and Surreal South ’13, and his story, “Gasoline,” is featured in Chuck Palahniuk’s Burnt Tongues collection. He lives in Southern Illinois with his wife and daughter. Venturini’s novel, The Heart Does Not Grow Back, forthcoming from Picador in November, is about a regular teenager, used to being a nonperson at his small-town Midwestern high school, until his life takes a bizarre turn when an unthinkable catastrophe reveals an inexplicable power: he can regenerate his organs and limbs.
James Brubaker is the author of Pilot Season (Sunnyoutside Press) and Liner Notes (forthcoming from Subito Press). His shorts stories have appeared in various journals, including Zoetrope: All Story, Hobart, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Collagist, and The Normal School. Brubaker teaches creative writing at Southeast Missouri State University, and helps run the online literary journal, The Collapsar. His latest work, Pilot Season, opens on a television executive attempting to shave his floundering network’s fall roster, then moves through a steady stream of absurd television pilots rooted in the executive’s anxieties, disappointments, and alienation from his family.
The Book House is an independent bookstore that has been family owned and operated for over 25 years, located in the heart of historic downtown Maplewood. They boast an eclectic mix of over 350,000 rare, out-of-print, new, and used books, acquired from hundreds of collections, auctions, and suppliers. A portion of the proceeds supports Second Chapter Life Center for young adults with developmental disabilities and the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition.”
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