Wednesday, March 22, 7-9 PM: Author Event with Pete "Pedro" Hoffmeister and Willy Vlautin: Pubic Reading, (short) Folk Concert, Q and A, and Book Signing Admission Free Pete’s latest book is “American Afterlife,” volume 1 of a projected trilogy; Willy’s latest book is “The Night Always Comes.”
What’s going to happen: Willy and Pedro (Pete) will read short excerpts from their latest books; then these two upstanding gentlemen will regale us us with three or four songs, accompanied by (their) guitar and violin.; followed by a Q and A. Book Signing and Meet and Greet to follow.
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About Willy Vlautin:
Born and raised in Reno, Nevada, Willy Vlautin is the author of six novels and is the founder of the bands Richmond Fontaine and The Delines. Vlautin started writing stories and songs at the age of eleven after receiving his first guitar. Inspired by songwriters and novelists like Paul Kelly, Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, William Kennedy, Barry Gifford, and John Steinbeck, Vlautin works diligently to tell working class stories in his novels and songs.
Vlautin has been the recipient of three Oregon Book Awards, The Nevada Silver Pen Award, and was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame and the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. He was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Two of his novels, The Motel Life and Lean on Pete, have been adapted as films. His novels have been translated into fourteen languages. Vlautin teaches at Pacific University’s MFA in Writing program and lives near Portland, Oregon with his wife, dog, cats, and horses.
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About Pete “Pedro” Hoffmeister:
Peter "Pedro" Brown Hoffmeister is an American author, poet, and rock climber. His books include Too Shattered For Mending,[1] This Is The Part Where You Laugh,[2][3] The End of Boys,[4][5] Let Them Be Eaten By Bears – A Fearless Guide To Taking Our Kids into The Great Outdoors,[6] Graphic the Valley,[7] and Confessions of the Last Man On Earth Without A Cell Phone. He has also written for Climbing Magazine, Rock and Ice, Vice, Climbing.com, Gripped Magazine, Ampheta'Zine, and the Huffington Post. He was a 2006 recipient of the Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship for Fiction.[8] He has worked as a rock climbing and whitewater rafting guide, and currently teaches literature, outdoor pursuits, and survival in Eugene, Oregon.[9]
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Review Quotes for The Night Always Comes:
"Vlautin offers a stunning, heartbreaking study of one woman's struggle against fate and circumstance in an America that's left her behind... This gritty page-turner sings with pitch-perfect prose, and [protagonist] Lynette's desperation is palpable. Vlautin has achieved a brilliant synthesis of Raymond Carver and Jim Thompson." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The trick to writing a great thriller is both simple and very, very difficult: make us care about the person whose life is in jeopardy. I can't remember the last time I worried myself sick about a fictional character the way I did about Lynette in Willy Vlautin's terrific, big-hearted new novel The Night Always Comes. You won't soon forget either her or the fraught world she so courageously navigates." -- Richard Russo, Author of Empire Falls and Chances Are...
"[Vlautin's] book plays out like a modern noir take on a Tennessee Williams play, its desperate characters harboring old resentments, its hard-luck heroine settling scores throughout a long, bloody night in her hometown of Portland, Oregon.... Vlautin has written a soulful thriller for the age of soulless gentrification." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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Review Quotes for American Afterlife:
Publishers Weekly (10/03/2022):
A powerful earthquake in Eugene, Ore., has left Cielo, the teenage narrator of this impressive thriller from Hoffmeister (Too Shattered for Mending as Peter Brown Hoffmeister), scrounging for food and supplies in demolished and abandoned homes, steeling herself against the sight and smells of the ubiquitous human remains. The initial absence of any relief efforts and of any adults she can trust makes even a minor injury life-threatening. Cielo is also bent on finding her missing Mexican immigrant mother, who has allied herself with a cult, the Collection of Redeemed Souls. Her mother was drawn to the group's halcyon promises that its followers would be raptured before the world's tribulations into a new Earth, whose streets would be paved with gold. Cielo must search for nutrition, water, shelter, and her mother while dodging members of the Collection, who are searching through the devastation for people they can compel to join them. Hoffmeister doesn't pull any punches as he gives new life to the familiar premise of a lone protagonist struggling to survive in an apocalyptic landscape, and expertly uses first-person present narration to convey a sense of immediacy. This is a masterful, intelligent page-turner from a talent to watch. Agent: Yishai Seidman, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary. (Dec.)
Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Review Quotes:
Praise for American Afterlife
"A masterful, intelligent page-turner from a talent to watch."
-- Publishers Weekly, starred review
"So good, it will stick with you forever . . . Quick and smart."
--Mystery and Suspense Magazine
