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Local authors Josh Rank and Wendy Wimmer team up for a weekend reading sharing their debut titles The Present is Past (Unsolicited Press) and Entry Level (Autumn House Press). Join us for an afternoon of literary conversation about these haunting, heart-wrenching stories full of magical realism and characters that will stick with you long after your read. In The Present is Past, Mary's growing dementia not only ends her teaching career but also leads her to losing the family dog. The patience that has kept their marriage afloat for 39 years gives way to the stress as her husband suffers a heart attack.
Their adult children attempt to help out but it's difficult to accept that your parents will die one day—and that day might be soon. Mary finds herself drawn to a specifc place. And as strangers inexplicably tell her, she just needs to figure out where that is while she still can.
The family must choose between finding a new way to support themselves and helping Mary make one last salient memory while it's still possible. And they must do this while the sun burns out, flocks of birds fall dead from the sky, and buildings full of people disappear in an instant.
About Josh Rank
Josh Rank graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee before moving to various cities around the country only to return to his hometown. His fiction has appeared in The Emerson Review, The Feathertale Review, Hypertext Magazine, and Elsewhere. He keeps himself busy putting together ugly woodworking projects, cooking for his wife, and wishing his dogs were better behaved.
Wendy Wimmer's debut short story collection Entry Level contains a range of characters who are trying to find, assert, or salvage their identities. These fifteen stories center around the experience of being underemployed--whether by circumstance, class, gender, race, or other prevailing factors--and the toll this takes on the individual. Wimmer pushes the boundaries of reality, creating stories that are funny, fantastic, and at times terrifying. Her characters undergo feats of endurance, heartbreak, and loneliness, all while trying to succeed in a world that so often undervalues them.
From a young marine biologist suffering from imposter syndrome and a haunting to a bingo caller facing another brutal snowstorm and a creature that may or may not be an angel, Wimmer's characters are all confronting an oppressive universe that seemingly operates against them or is, at best, indifferent to them. These stories reflect on the difficulties of modern-day survival and remind us that piecing together a life demands both hope and resilience.
About Wendy Wimmer
Born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Wimmer's debut short-story collection Entry Level is the winner of the 2021 Autumn House Fiction Prize and was recently featured in People Magazine and The Washington Post as a best new book of 2022. She holds a master of arts degree from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and a PhD from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. Her work has been published in Barrelhouse, Waxing, Paper Darts, Believer, ANMLY, Per Contra, Blackbird, and others.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
211 N Washington St, Green Bay, WI 54301-5127, United States