Stranger Than Fiction reading series

Please join co-hosts Alan Black and Frances Stroh for this not-to-be-missed event on April 30, 3-5 pm–check out our stellar line-up:

Ethel Rohan is the author of The Weight of Him, a debut novel published by St. Martin’s Press, February 2017. She is also the author of two story collections, Goodnight Nobody and Cut Through the Bone. An award-winning short story writer, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, World Literature Today, Tin House Online, Guernica Magazine, and many others. Raised in Ireland, she lives in San Francisco.

Rachel Howard is the author of The Lost Night, a memoir about her father’s unsolved murder. Her essays and short stories have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Gulf Coast, the Arroyo Literary Review, the Hudson Review, Waxwing, and OZY, among other publications. Her essay for Oprah Magazine, “The Love Fast,” was recently collected in O’s Little Guide to Starting Over. She teaches memoir and personal essay writing at Stanford Continuing Studies and the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. She has also served as Interim Director of Undergraduate Creative Writing at Warren Wilson College, and as Distinguished Visiting Writer for the Saint Mary’s College MFA program. She lives in Nevada City, where she produces a popular reading series, YubaLit. www.rachelhoward.com

Jason Bayani is the author of Amulet from Write Bloody Press. He’s an MFA graduate from Saint Mary’s College, a Kundiman fellow, and works as the Artistic Director for Kearny Street Workshop. Jason performs regularly around the country and recently debuted his solo show, “Locus of Control” in 2016. http://jasonbayani.com/

Alan Black works on “Notes From a Dive Bar” like a bartender tossing a drunk into the alleyway. Reckless, messy and all over the place, it never ends. The Penguin Corporation published his two books. Made in Glasgow, unmade in California.

Peg Alford Pursell is the author of Show Her a Flower, A Bird, A Shadow (ELJ Editions, March 2017), a collection of hybrid prose and micro-fictions with praise from Peter Orner, Joan Silber, Margot Livesey and others. Her stories and poems have appeared in Permafrost, the Los Angeles Review, Forklift Ohio, Joyland Magazine, 100 Word Story, and many other journals and anthologies. She is the founder and director of the national reading series Why There Are Words and founder and director of WTAW Press. Visit her at www.pegalfordpursell.com

Jon Boilard is the author of the debut short story collection, Setright Road (Dzanc Books/2017) and two novels, The Castaway Lounge (Dzanc Books/2015) and A River Closely Watched (MacAdam Cage/2012), which was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award. His award-winning short stories have appeared in some of the finest literary journals in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Jon has participated in the Cork International Short Story Festival in Cork, Ireland, the Wroclaw Short Story Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, as well as LitQuake. He lives in the San Francisco Sunset district with his wife and two daughters.