The Boy with a Bird in His Chest is a Finalist for an Oregon Book Award!
I was so pleased yesterday when news hit that my novel The Boy with a Bird in His Chest is a finalist for an Oregon Book Award, specifically the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction. I’m looking forward to attending the awards ceremony on April 3rd. It will be the first in-person ceremony since 2019, when I was also an invited guest. (I was awarded an Oregon Literary Fellowship in Fiction that year.) I’ve always wanted to write a book that was nominated for this award so I’m deeply honored to be a finalist with my debut. Thank you to the judges Zinzi Clemmons, Jonathan Dee, and Shruti Swamy. Congratulations to all the other nominees. (I’m stunned to be in company with the fabulous Lidia Yuknavitch.) If you haven’t yet, please consider ordering a copy of the novel. You can get it at your local bookstore, Bookshop, or anywhere else books are sold.
Last week I sat down with Matthew Trueherz at Portland Monthly to talk about writing, taking up space when you’re trans, and my next novel.
There are still slots left in my online class “When New York’s a Character: On Writing Place and Setting.” Class begins February 4th and runs for four weeks on Saturdays from 11am pt -1pm pt. I taught this class last summer and the feedback from students was super positive. Course description: “Over the course of four weeks, we will explore place and setting in writing, learning how to capture the sights, smells, sounds, and feelings of our world, exploring everything from grassy meadows to paved cities. We will learn specific research techniques for capturing moments in the past in places we can no longer visit as well as well techniques for catching details in the spaces we inhabit.”
This Saturday (1/28) I’ll be reading at Rose City Book Pub in Portland to celebrate the release of Jessica Wadleigh’s newest zine, Grandma Story. I’ll be joining Alayna Becker, Rachel Toback, Colin Keating, Alissa Hattman, and, of course, Jessica Wadleigh. The event starts at 7.
Next Wednesday (2/1), I’ll be hosting One Page Wednesday at Literary Arts in downtown Portland. I’m super thrilled that the brilliant Vanessa Friedman will be our featured reader. And as always, we encourage everyone to bring a page of their own work to share for the open-mic portion (but not required of course). We start at 7.