Catherine Lacey Residency 2015

Last year, Kevin applied for and won a grant for the Creative Writing Program at his university. The grant, the President’s Visiting Artists Series Award, is for bringing practicing artists to campus to work with students and faculty.

He brought Catherine Lacey, author of Nobody is Ever Missing, a Granta New Voice in 2014, awarded an artist’s fellowship from New York Foundation for the Arts in 2012, and has taught in the Creative Writing Program at Columbia University.

She gave a public talk on the craft of writing on Wednesday. Throughout the week she hosted fiction and creative non-fiction workshops with undergraduates at Stony Brook, and MFA candidates in Southampton.  But most fun for me, I got to go to dinner with her on Monday night. Her book is awesome so it's no surprise that so is she.

Public lecture about the craft of writing on Wednesday, November 4

Personal essay workshop

Brooklyn Book Festival 2014

Last year when we went to the Brooklyn Book Festival together, Kevin already knew his book would published with Black Balloon so we spent some time at their table talking to the editor Buz, publicist Jen, and and some of the other authors. So going back this year with his book on the table was realizing the dream. Kevin talked to people buying his book and signed copies through the afternoon.

Kevin and We Were Flying to Chicago at the Brooklyn Book Festival!

The 9th Annual Brooklyn Book Festival at Borough Hall!

Kevin got to meet Mike Meginnis who wrote Fat Man and Little Boy, and whom Kevin was to spend many days with during their Midwest Book Tour together. (More on that soon.) He also met Sean Manning, author of Come Here Often?

Mike Meginnis, Kevin, and Michelle and Freddie from Black Balloon Publishing

• Kevin's most recent book event, Fall for the Book at GMU 2014
• Kevin's reading at BookCourt in Brooklyn, June 2014
• The 8th Annual Brooklyn Book Festival 2013

Lit Crawl NYC 2014

Kevin and his publisher participated in "Lit Crawl NYC" which is a yearly event. The organizers set up several events throughout the day involving literature. Kevin played led a team in "Literary Taboo" for his publisher Black Balloon Publishing against team captain Catherine Lacey Electric Literature. Basically they had to describe books and authors without using certain words.

Nick, who's kind of a trivia master, was on his team. The following exchange occurred.

Kevin: (Looks at card, sees book series he's never read) It's a job a young girl might have, and this is the central organization.
Nick: BABY SITTERS' CLUB!!!!
Audience: (Hysterical laughing.)

Nick, when it was his turn to give clues.

Needless to say, Kevin's team won.

Okay, okay, here's another good one, from the other team.
Woman we don't know: It's the book your asshole Republican college boyfriend buys you a copy of and insists you read.
Woman 2: ATLAS SHRUGGED!!

After that Kevin and friends went to a reading at Swift Hibernian Lounge, (Eric Boyd, Phil Klay, Abeer Hoque, Ali Power, and Genya Turovskaya) in support of the Guernica/PEN Flash Series and PEN Poetry Series. And finally, they went to the After-Party at the Magician, which is already one of Kevin's favorite bars.