Join author AMY BONNAFFONS Thursday, September 27 at Off Square Books for Thacker Mountain Radio
Amy Bonnaffons‘ work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Kenyon Review, among other places, and has been read on This American Life. She is a founding editor of 7×7.la, an online journal that publishes collaborations between writers and visual artists. She holds an MFA from NYU and currently lives in Athens, Georgia, where she is pursuing a PhD at the University of Georgia.
In The Wrong Heaven, anything is possible: bodies can transform, inanimate objects come to life, angels appear and disappear.
Bonnaffons draws us into a delightfully strange universe, in which her conflicted characters seek to solve their sexual and spiritual dilemmas in all the wrong places. The title story’s heroine reckons with grief while arguing with loquacious Jesus and Mary lawn ornaments that come to life when she plugs them in. In “Horse,” we enter a world in which women transform themselves into animals through a series of medical injections. In “Alternate,” a young woman convinces herself that all she needs to revive a stagnant relationship is the perfect poster of the Dalai Lama.
While some of the worlds to which Bonnaffons transports us are more recognizable than others, all of them uncover the mysteries beneath the mundane surfaces of our lives. Enormously funny, boldly inventive, and as provocative as they are deeply affecting, these stories lay bare the heart of our deepest longings.
Musical guests will be:
Kelly Hunt, an Americana/roots singer-songwriter born and raised in Memphis, is now based out of Kansas City. Accompanied by her 1920s tenor banjo (“Ira”) and guitar (“Vernon”), Kelly’s songs meld traditions of folk, blues, classic country, and old-time music. Her debut album, Even the Sparrow, is forthcoming.
Guitarist Terry “Big T” Williams began his apprenticeship on guitar at age 11 in Clarksdale with blues legend, “Mr. Johnnie” Billington. Mr. Johnnie taught him the basics, and Big T learned the rest on the road backing up Big Jack Johnson, the Jelly Roll Kings, Wesley “Junebug” Jefferson, Big George Brock and many others. His CDs include Jump Back and Meet Me in the Cottonfield. Williams lives in Clarksdale.
