Photo of the Day

Hat tip to Michael Maren – Karen Russell, Jim Shepard, Ben Marcus, listening to Sloane Crosley @powerHouseArena on May 24

Jim reads in Brooklyn, May 24

For more information about the event, click here.

Jim Shepard Reads at Broadway Books in Portland Tonight!

Calling all PDX-ers – be sure to stop by Broadway Books at 7:00 pm tonight.  Don’t miss it!

Here is the link:  http://www.broadwaybooks.net/Events.html

I’m coming too and I look forward to meeting you!

“You Think That’s Bad” is Almost Here!

Hello Jim Shepard fans!  Apologies on my end for not being as diligent as I should be about blogging, but now I will be back with renewed enthusiasm because Jim’s book “You Think That’s Bad” will be released on March 22!  (Which is also, coincidentally, my 30th birthday,  so I am convinced that this will be a lucky year for me!)

So, in the meantime, go ahead and pre-order the book at Amazon or Powell’s or another bookstore of your choice, and check back here for more updates.

Also, please note that Jim Shepard will be doing a book tour this spring to promote his new collection.  And I can’t stress enough that along with being a great writer,  Jim Shepard is one of the FINEST readers alive today, and the chance to meet him in person is an experience not to be missed.  If you don’t believe me, check out some of the videos I’ve posted on this blog and see for yourself.  I’ll be publicizing his upcoming trips as much as possible, so please come and bring your friends, and prepare for a wonderful evening.

Your comments about his work, your experience of his work, etc. are always welcome and I will be happy to post them to this blog.  Thank you for visiting and please keep in touch.

Welcome to Shepard Town

The Rumpus has selected Jim Shepard’s upcoming collection, “You Think That’s Bad” as it February Rumpus Book Club Selection!

Here is the full post:

Coming Soon: February.   And not just February, but the February Rumpus Book Club selection, You Think That’s Bad, the new collection of short stories by Jim Shepard, which The Rumpus Book Club members will receive more than a month before the book is available for purchase.

You can join the book club here. We’re only going to be able to accept a limited number of new subscribers this month.

We’re really excited about this. So excited we might just rename The Rumpus “Shepard Town.” As in, Welcome to Shepard Town.

Click here to join the Rumpus Bookclub.

Jim Shepard reads “Boy’s Town” VIDEO

Video: Jim Shepard Reads “Poland is Watching”

 

Taken from a reading for Ploughshares in October 2010.  You can purchase “Poland is Watching” on your Kindle by clicking here.

Jim Shepard reads TODAY at Arizona State University

(From ASU’s website)

Nov. 4, 2010
1:30 p.m., 7:45 p.m.

Jim Shepard, a novelist and short-story writer who is known for his darkly humorous tales and work that explores the pain of male adolescence, will discuss his work during a Public Craft Q&A at 1:30 p.m., Nov. 4 at the Piper Writers House on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus.

Shepard then will read and sign books at 7:45 p.m., also on Nov. 4, in Recital Hall in the Music Building on the Tempe campus. Both events are free.

Ghosts and Curses Event at Mass MOCA, Oct. 30

This sounds like a fun evening!

Chosen by New York Magazine, The Village Voice and NY Press as the best reading series in NYC, and singled out by the New York Times Magazine for helping to “keep downtown, NY alive,” The Happy Ending Series features a unique format. Readers are required to take one public risk. The musicians who play short sets interspersed with the reading, are required to play one cover song and try to get the audience to sing along. MASS MoCA transports this recipe for mischief north for a special Halloween edition featuring indie singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Paul Harding, and local author Jim Shepard.

Here are the details:

Saturday, October 30, 2010, 8:00 pm
Club B-10
$12 in advance / $16 day of / $10 students / 10% members discount

MASS MoCA
87 Marshall Street
North Adams, MA 01247

For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

Ploughshares Hosts Jim Shepard in Boston, Oct. 12!

Jim Shepard is the guest editor of the supurb literary journal, Ploughshares.  And Jim will be reading on October 12th at the Paramount Theater – and all Bostonians should come!  Here’s the complete info:

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Jim Shepard Reading, hosted by Ploughshares

Author(s): Jim Shepard
Category: Reading
Date: Oct 12, 2010
Time: 6:00 pm

Location: The Paramount Theater
Address: 555 Washington St., Boston, MA 02115

Additional Information:
Email: pshares@emerson.edu
Phone: 617-824-3757

Ploughshares and Emerson College invite you to the Ploughshares Reading Series featuring celebrated author Jim Shepard, guest editor of the Fall 2010 issue of Ploughshares. Shepard will host a reading of his work at 6 p.m.

Jim Shepard is the author of six novels and two short story collections. He was recently nominated for the National Book Award for his latest collection of short stories, Like You’d Understand Anyway, about which the New York Times Book Review said, “To praise Shepard’s mastery of voice is to undersell what these stories are doing; it isn’t the voice Shepard inhabits but the world. . . . Shepard is an impressive writer, but I wasn’t impressed until I finished the book: I was too busy being enthralled.” Shepard is also a frequent contributor to The Believer and the New York Times Book Review, he teaches at Williams College.

Shepard promises to be a compelling speaker, given his “…instinct to ferret out and further discuss the unexpected strangeness wherever it surfaced in my work.”

The reading will be held in the Paramount Theater, 555 Washington St., Boston , MA 02115. The nearest subway stops are Downtown Crossing (Red and Orange Lines) and Boylston (Green Line). Parking is available at the Boston Common Garage on Charles Street between Boylston and Beacon Streets.

Ploughshares was founded in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O’Malley and has been based at Emerson College since 1989. Published three times a year, each issue is guest-edited by a prominent writer, most recently Tony Hoagland and Elizabeth Strout. Upcoming editors include Terrance Hayes, Colm Tóibín, and DeWitt Henry. To subscribe to Ploughshares, please visit our website, http://pshares.org/. The Fall 2010 issue was released in August 2010.

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If you aren’t a reader of Ploughshares, please check out their website and consider subscribing.