Rita Bullwinkel and Lisa Brown

Rita Bullwinkel celebrates the release of

Belly Up: Stories

from A Strange Object Press

Lisa Brown presents a sneak preview of an upcoming new graphic novel forthcoming in late 2018

Rita and Lisa will also discuss the creative process in an evening of readings accompanied by talks.

about Belly Up:

The stories of Belly Up occupy the space between the familiar and the surreal. Through fiercely intelligent prose and quotidian moments, a receptionist becomes fascinated with harp music, two high school girls debate taking gym class and a bored beauty corresponds with an inmate. Fantastical stories filled with ghosts, mediums and carnivorous churches find humanity and warmth in the grotesque. The characters and voices of Belly Up, whether a sentient snake who eats children or a widow building a life without her husband, are all seeking to find a way to cope with the bodies they’ve been given and the bodies they must encounter.

Rita Bullwinkel’s writing has been published in Tin House, Conjunctions, Vice, NOON, and Guernica. She is a recipient of grants and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Brown University, Vanderbilt University, Hawthornden Castle, and The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Both her fiction and her translation have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. She is an Editor at Large for McSweeney’s. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, she now lives in the Richmond and works in the Mission. This is her first book.

Lisa Brown draws things like illustration and comics, writes things like books and book reviews, and teaches things to kids and college students. Her debut picture book, How to Be, was one of the Thirteen Best Children’s Books for Family Literacy. Since then she has published a ton more books, including Vampire Boy’s Good Night and The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming, a New York Times bestseller by elusive author Lemony Snicket. She co-authored Picture the Dead, an illustrated young adult novel, with acclaimed writer Adele Griffin, and created the award-winning Baby Be of Use series of board books for McSweeney’s. Lisa draws the Three Panel Book Review cartoon strip, and is a comics contributor at The Rumpus. She teaches illustration at the California College of the Arts, and is a long-time workshop instructor and field trip leader at the 826 Valencia tutoring center. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and son, but can usually be found wandering around the internet.