An Evening with Janice Deal, in Conversation with Elise Juska

Tuesday, September 19th, at 6:30 PM

Please join us on September 19th for a wonderful Evening with Janice Deal & Elise Juska as they discuss Deal's new book, Strange Attractors: The Ephrem Stories

ABOUT THE BOOK

In Janice Deal’s linked story collection STRANGE ATTRACTORS, everyday people navigate the uncertainties of life in the American heartland, seeking order in chaos with a very human mix of resilience and folly.

At first glance, the fictional Ephrem, Illinois, seems a friendly, familiar town—it draws you right in, even if you don’t need supplies at the mall or a snack at Brat Station. But as you come closer, you discover people who are complex and unpredictable. Life itself is capricious, and loneliness can turn a person strange. Past traumas linger. Illness sometimes falls like a hammer. Yet there’s much affection here, small and large examples of human kindness.

For years, Janice Deal has been publishing award-winning stories about Ephrem. Now assembled for the first time, these extraordinary tales offer a masterful snapshot of life in today’s small-town America.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Janice Deal is the author of a novel, The Sound of Rabbits, and a previous story collection, The Decline of Pigeons. The Sound of Rabbits placed as a finalist for both the Many Voices Project annual competition and the Black Lawrence Press Big Moose Prize. The Decline of Pigeons was a finalist in the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Stories from her new collection, Strange Attractors, have won The Moth Short Story Prize and the Cagibi Macaron Prize. Janice has also received an Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship Award for prose.

IN CONVERSATION WITH

Elise Juska is the author of five novels, including If We Had Known and The Blessings, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and one of the Philadelphia Inquirer's Best Books of the Year. Her new novel, Reunion, is forthcoming from HarperCollins in May 2024. Juska's fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Ploughshares, The Gettysburg Review, The Missouri Review, The Hudson Review, Electric Literature, and many other publications. She is the recipient of the Alice Hoffman Prize from Ploughshares and her work has been cited by the Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize anthologies. Juska is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of the Arts.

Event date: 
Tuesday, September 19, 2023 - 6:30pm
Event address: 
Head House Books
619 South 2nd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147
Strange Attractors: The Ephrem Stories By Janice Deal Cover Image
$18.95
ISBN: 9781735558547
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-3 Days
Published: New Door Books - September 12th, 2023

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