Mary Kay Zuravleff

In her only collection of fiction, Kaufman, a widely anthologized, prize-winning writer who passed away in August, looks at the lives of girls and women, showing with humor and insight the various ways daughters, wives, and lovers meet life’s joys and challenges. Join Mary Kay Zuravleff, author of Man Alive! and Scott W. Berg, whose most recent history is 38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier’s End, who will read from Kaufman’s stories and commemorate her life and work. A light reception will follow the readings. (Stillhouse Press)

Street: 5015 Connecticut Ave NW City: Washington, Province: District Of Columbia Postal Code: 20008 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Our own Kelly Justice moderates this conversation on novels that show us how families survive (or not) those random moments that change everything. Virginia Pye’s debut novel, River of Dust, was chosen as an Indie Next Pick. Carolyn See in The Washington Post called it “intricate and fascinating;” Annie Dillard said it’s “a strong, beautiful, deep book;" and Robert Olen Butler named it “a major work by a splendid writer.” Virginia has published award-winning short stories in literary magazines. Her essays can be found in The Rumpus, Brain, Child, and The New York Times Opinionator blog. Interviews with her are at The Nervous Breakdown and The Huffington Post. Here in Richmond, she is a three term past chair of James River Writers. Please visit her at www.virginiapye.com.

Mary Kay Zuravleff is the author of Man Alive!, which The Washington Post called “a family novel for smart people” and chose as a 2013 Notable Book. People Magazine praised the novel's “impressive intelligence and sly humor,” and Alice McDermott wrote, "A lightning bolt to a parking meter certainly packs a punch, but so does every sentence and scene of this exuberant novel. Man Alive! is vividly alive and breathing. A sparkling book." Mary Kay's two earlier novels, The Bowl Is Already Broken and The Frequency of Souls, won the American Academy of Arts Rosenthal Award and the James Jones First Novel Award, and she is a five-time winner of a D.C. Commission on the Arts Grant. She lives in Washington, D.C., where she serves on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and is a cofounder of the D.C. Women Writers Group.

Location: Street: 1312 E. Cary St. City: Richmond, Province: Virginia Postal Code: 23219-4118 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Man Alive!

In the novel Man Alive!, all it takes is a quarter to change Owen Lerner's life. When lightning strikes the coin he's feeding into the parking meter, the pediatric psychiatrist survives, except now he only wants to barbecue. The bolt of lightning that lifts Dr. Lerner into the air sends the entire Lerner clan into free fall, and Man Alive!follows along at full speed, capturing family-on-family pain with devastating humor and a rare generosity. This novel explores how much we are each allowed to change within a family-and without. Mary Kay Zuravleff is also the author of The Bowl Is Already Broken and The Frequency of Souls. She's received the American Academy's Rosenthal Award, the James Jones First Novel Award, and been nominated for the Orange Prize. Zuravleff has taught writing and is a co-founder of the DC Women Writers Group. She also served on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and two children.

Location: Street: 5233 N. Clark St. City: Chicago, Province: Illinois Postal Code: 60640-2122 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

The electrifying third novel from the D.C. author of The Frequency of Souls and The Bowl Is Already Broken starts with a bolt and never loses momentum. Owen Lerner is struck by lightning and survives—but changes. Can his family adjust? The consequences are as unpredictable as the initial event.

Beer and wine will be available.

Street: 5015 Connecticut Ave NW City: Washington, Province: District Of Columbia Postal Code: 20008 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)