Thursday, October 27, 2011

WILMINGTON, N.C.- Acclaimed writer Steve Almond will tour North Carolina to promote his story collection God Bless America, published on October 25 by the University of North Carolina Wilmington's literary book imprint, Lookout. The tour, sponsored in part by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, will take Almond to bookstores and college campuses in Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Asheville, Brevard and Wilmington, where he will serve as the keynote speaker for the Department of Creative Writing's annual Writers Week.

By offering the free public readings and workshops, Lookout hopes to facilitate discussions about God Bless America and to help raise awareness of the university's innovative teaching press. Lookout co-founders Ben George and Emily Louise Smith will join Almond in Chapel Hill to discuss the challenges and benefits of publishing with a small press. Lookout will provide host organizations with gratis copies of a reading guide and other resources.

Each of the 13 stories in God Bless America is an investigation of the contemporary American Dream. Called "one of our finest literary provocateurs" by nationally renowned author Junot Díaz, Almond offers a comic and forlorn portrait of the United States: lust for fame, racial tensions, the toll of perpetual war and the pursuit of romantic happiness.

Publishers Weekly said Almond "defines a new American gothic," and Swamplandia! author Karen Russell wrote, "These wonderful, wickedly hilarious stories have forgiveness at their core."

Steve Almond is the author of two previous story collections, a novel and the nonfiction books Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life, (Not That You Asked) and Candyfreak. His stories have appeared in Playboy, Zoetrope and Ecotone, among others, and have been reprinted in Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize. In November, Almond will serve as Distinguished Visiting Writer-in-Residence in the UNCW Department of Creative Writing. He lives outside Boston.

Lookout Books, a literary imprint housed in the UNCW Department of Creative Writing, is the joint effort of The Publishing Laboratory, a teaching press where students learn the publishing process through apprenticeship, and Ecotone, the department's award-winning national literary magazine. The press made history when its debut book, Edith Pearlman's Binocular Vision, was named a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award in fiction. The press aims to bring attention to emerging and underrepresented writers, as well as overlooked gems by established authors.

Read more about the author, book and press at www.lookout.org.

For more information or to schedule an interview with the author, contact Emily Smith at 910.962.7401, smithel@uncw.edu. Review copies available upon request.

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North Carolina Tour Schedule:

· Radio Interview with Frank Stasio of The State of Things,WUNC, 12 p.m., Fri., Nov. 11

· Reading and Conversation with Lookout co-founders Ben George and Emily Louise Smith, 6 p.m., Sat., Nov. 12, Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, N.C.

· Reading and Signing, 7 p.m., Mon., Nov. 14, Malaprop's, Asheville, N.C.

· Q & A with the Author, 4 p.m. and Reading and Signing, 7:30 p.m., Tues., Nov. 15, Reserve Dining Room, Myers Hall, Brevard College, Brevard, N.C.

· Keynote Address, 7 p.m., Thurs. Nov. 17, Writers Week, Lumina Theater, UNC Wilmington

· Reading and Signing, 7:30 p.m., Wed., Nov. 30, Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, N.C.

· Reading and Signing, 7 p.m., Sat., Dec. 3, Hub City Bookshop, Spartanburg, S.C.

All events are free and open to the public.