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Cost: Pay What You WishJoseph Earl Thomas “constructed a sort of alchemy on the page” (The New York Times Book Review) with his first book Sink, a coming-of-age memoir that chronicles the author’s escape from an upbringing of deprivation to a geek culture in which he could build a family and community on his own terms. An excerpt of this work won the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize. His other writing has appeared or is forthcoming in VQR, n+1, The Kenyon Review, and Gulf Coast, among other literary journals, and he has received writing fellowships from the Fulbright program, Bread Loaf, and Tin House. A doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania, he is the Director of Programs at Blue Stoop in Philadelphia and an associate faculty member at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. In his debut novel, God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, Thomas portrays a fictionalized version of himself, telling the tale of an Iraq War veteran who returns to North Philadelphia in search of a secure footing, erstwhile family, and intimacy.
John Vercher’s Three-Fifths, named one of the best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune and a nominated for the Edgar and Strand Magazine Critics’ Awards for best first novel, tells a story of identity and racial violence in 1995 Pittsburgh. His follow-up novel, After the Lights Go Out, named a Best Book of Summer 2022 by BookRiot, explores multi-racial relationships and the complicated journey of an MMA fighter with CTE. Vercher teaches in the Department of English & Philosophy at Drexel University and was the inaugural Wilma Dykeman writer-in-residence at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. A novel about the bonds between fathers and sons and inheritance in its many forms, Devil Is Fine tells the story of a grieving bi-racial man who suddenly learns that he has come into possession of a former southern plantation.
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Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night.
A book signing will follow the presentation.
Books provided by Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
1901 Vine St, Philadelphia, PA, United States, Pennsylvania 19103
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