Sheryl Monks

Even though I am no longer doing publicity at Press 53, I'd like to tell you about author Denzil Strickland's quest to increase his Amazon ranking before Christmas. The book is doing well, but it should be in more hands. If you haven't yet found the right gift, please consider giving great literature this year, and take a look specifically at Swimmers in the Sea by Denzil Strickland.

We had a great crowd at Borders last night for Kyle Minor and Denzil Strickland's reading. I was a bit worried that our party with skirt! magazine tonight might take the wind out of the event's sails. Fortunately, we had a nice room full of people who were really engaged (no surprise there) with lots of good questions for both writers afterwards.

Later, Kyle, Kev and I headed out for a bite to eat. Foothills Brewery was packed and ridiculously loud, so we headed up Fourth to another new restaurant, and it, too, was overcrowded and smoky. So we went across the street and ate outside at a little sandwich joint where we enjoyed a bit of Guns-n-Roses blaring from the billiards room nearby. Kyle liked that a lot. :)

It was great to finally meet you, Kyle. Come again soon.

Kyle Minor and I have corresponded a lot by email and social networking sites, but we haven't yet met face to face. Tonight, we finally will.

He'll be joining one of our authors, Denzil Strickland, for a shared reading of their work at Borders Books & Music in Thruway Shopping Center on Stratford. The event starts at 7:00 pm. Please join us.

Kyle will be reading from his new collection of stories In the Devil's Territory, published by another wonderful small press, Dzanc Books, led by Dan Wickett of Emerging Writers' Network fame.

Kyle Minor's work has appeared widely in magazines and anthologies, among them Best American Mystery Stories 2008, The Southern Review, The Gettysburg Review, Surreal South, and Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers: The Best New Voices of 2006. His work has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Press 53's own Denzil Strickland will read from his debut novel Swimmers in the Sea, a book that Indie booksellers are raving about.

Here's what one, Laney Blancard at Sundog Books in Florida, said:

"As a serious reader, it is rare and exciting to find a book that is both personally moving and, as a bookseller, easy to recommend to a variety of customers. Swimmers in the Sea is so beautiful, familiar and engaging, I truly look forward to sharing this book."

Author Sena Jeter Naslund calls Swimmers in the Sea "contemporary writing at its best: clean, hard-edged, mysterious and moving. This novel has the classic lines of Hemingway but as much clout as Ian McEwan's Atonement."

Silas House agrees, saying "Denzil Strickland's Swimmers in the Sea is a rollercoaster ride of a novel. It is compulsively readable, with vivid characters and a slow-burn tension that continues to build throughout this literary page-turner. Strickland has an amazing ear for dialogue and a keen eye for all the little details that paint a gritty, beautiful portrait of the damaged lives populating this book. This is a thrilling, moving novel, and I couldn't put it down."

Please join us tonight to hear these two very talented writers read their work.