Sean Kinch

June 4, 2014 The stories in John Brandon’s new collection, Further Joy, pack a novel’s worth of engaging conflict and intriguing personalities into small packages. Stuck in small Florida towns that have no tourist attractions or natural beauty, Brandon’s characters make a game of their lives just to withstand them. John Brandon will read from Further Joy at Crosstown Arts in Memphis on June 9, 2014, at 6 p.m.

March 13, 2014 Bill Cotter’s new novel, Parallel Apartments, set mainly in Austin, centers on three generations of women whose lives have been upended by unplanned pregnancies. This densely peopled novel is replete with outrageous events intended to provoke and titillate, but at its heart it explores the nature of desire and the consequences of dubious decisions. Bill Cotter will read from Parallel Apartments at Crosstown Arts in Memphis on March 18, 2014, at 6 p.m.

January 15, 2014 In Okey Ndibe’s new novel, Foreign Gods, Inc., a Nigerian-American on the brink of bankruptcy decides to steal the war god from his African village and sell it to a Manhattan art dealer. This scheme leads him into the middle of religious and political conflicts that force him to decide where his deepest loyalties lie. Ndibe will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 19, 2014, at 2 p.m.

November 14, 2013 Jonathan Miles’s second novel, Want Not, follows a middle-aged linguistics professor, a pair of Dumpster-diving “freegans,” and a suburban housewife, all living in greater New York City, as they come to terms with the refuse of their lives. It’s a droll and affecting tale that disguises its philosophical message beneath a comic veneer. Miles will read from Want Not at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 16, 2013, at 4 p.m.