Sheryl Monks

Thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of a day-long writing exercise, provided by the folks at Dzanc Books. I wrote a story called "Crazy Checks" in its entirety, a first for me. It's a draft, obviously, but it felt good accomplishing so much in one day. Some of you may regularly sit down and write a story in one day, but I don't. Or seldom have I. There have been those stories that come burning through another dimension and I sit down and dictate them. But that's only happened once really, and I've since learned that even those stories that feel like gifts are not really stories until you sit down and thoroughly work them over. I opted out of having my story posted on the Emerging Writers Network blog. I don't want to be embarrassed by the many better writers who participated. I'm just happy for the chance to stretch. If you get a chance, you should do one of these.

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.

My pledge page is now up at Dzanc Books. Please drop by and sponsor me. I need all the encouragement I can muster to jump back into the fray. Your donation goes to a really great arts program provided by the fine people at Dzanc Books. Ten bucks, twenty? Every dime is much appreciated and will help finance the excellent and much-needed programs offered at Dzanc. If you value the arts, good literature, and small presses, now's your chance to support them. Please help us out.

I'd like to sponsor Sheryl Monks in the Dzanc Books Write-A-Thon

Thank you!

Dzanc Books, a phenomenal small press in Michigan, is sponsoring a fun-raiser targeted at writers. Proceeds will help support Dzanc's Writer in Residence Programs. I'm signing up right now. Register soon -- before Nov. 15 -- and get those pledges in! Simply email info@dzancbooks.org.

Read more at:

Dzanc Books Write-A-Thon