Events

Wednesday 03/24/09  7pm-8pm Alan DeNiro reads from Total Oblivion, More or Less What’s a girl to do when her world is invaded by warriors from the ancient world? That’s the problem faced by sixteen-year-old Macy, who sees her quiet, normal life in suburban Minnesota turned upside down when things that should never be possible begin to transform the landscape all around her. The cable stops working, the phone lines die–and then the horsemen come to town. It’s not the same America that she last went to sleep in.   Ticketed to a refugee camp by the marauding Scythian armies, Macy and her family come to believe that heading down the Mississippi by boat is their one escape from the encroaching madness. But as they make their way downriver, Macy’s world just keeps getting stranger, and the wooden submarines, wasp-borne plagues, and talking dogs are the least of her problems: For in this upside-down world, old identities warp and family bonds are sorely tested.   Acclaimed writer Alan DeNiro has fashioned a completely original, utterly beguiling melding of the surreal and the everyday.  Alan DeNiro was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the College of Wooster and received an MFA in poetry writing from the University of Virginia. His collection of short stories, Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead, was longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and a finalist for the Crawford Award. His short fiction has appeared in One Story, Crowd, Interfictions 2, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere. He lives outside St. Paul, Minnesota with his wife Kristin, a dog, and three cats.