"Wonderland: A Tale of Hustling Hard and Breaking Even" w/Nicole Treska

East End Books Ptown Presents: "Wonderland: A Tale of Hustling Hard and Breaking Even" w/Nicole Treska - Ptown7/12 @6pm

Tickets:

After the death of her paternal aunt, Nicole returns to the town that gave her family its street cred but has taken away everything else. She was born to a family of gangsters in the Boston area whose affiliation with the Winter Hill Gang afforded them an amount of protection, money, and respect.

It's in Boston that she reunites with her father and is reminded of why she left in the first place, but also why she returned. Though Nicole sees it as her responsibility to take care of those around her, as a writer, adjunct professor, and waitress, who rents out the second bedroom of her Harlem apartment on Airbnb to make ends meet, she can barely take care of herself.

If achieving the American Dream means alienating oneself from their community, Wonderland: A Tale of Hustling Hard and Breaking Even reminds us why the reality of "escaping poverty" is more complex than the decisions of individuals, but also depends on the investment we make in our people to thrive together.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nicole Treska is the author of the debut memoir Wonderland. Her short fiction has appeared in New York Tyrant magazine, Epiphany literary journal, and Egress: New Openings in Literary Art. Her interviews and reviews are up at Electric Literature, Guernica, The Millions, BOMB, The Rumpus, and then some. She lives in Harlem with her husband, James, and their three-legged dog, Nadine.

*** EARLY PRAISE FOR WONDERLAND***

"Far as I can tell, Nicole Treska is a singular voice: one full of heart, humor, and wisdom, one charting a world I knew little to nothing about. I read Wonderland and have come away astonished by the singing truth of her lines, by how much command she has over craft, by how deep she makes me feel about her experience, though never with sentimentality. The way she sees the world and writes it is all her own—and what's better than that?"

— Mitchell Jackson, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Whiting Award Winner, Author of The Residue Years and Survival Math

"Teeming with affecting prose, dark humor, and endless style, Wonderland is a hopeful, empathetic memoir about an unforgettable American family. Nicole Treska is a formidable debut writer with a beautiful heart and a tremendous ear for language."

—Kimberly King Parsons, National Book Award-Nominated Author of Black Light and We Were the Universe

“Wonderland pays tribute to those who just can’t knock it off, to the infuriating romance of making a life on the wrong side of the Charles.”

— Tracy O'Neil, National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Recipient, Author of The Hopeful, Quotients, and forthcoming Woman of Interest

“Straight talk!”

—Gordon Lish, former editor at Esquire and Alfred A. Knopf, Award-winning author of Dear Mr. Capote and Peru

Event Venue

East End Books Ptown, 389 Commercial Street, Provincetown, United States