I’m pleased to announce the two authors selected to read at the final SBA Summer Reading Series event, Death, with Carlo Gébler. The winners are Ryan Van Runkle and Ross Weldon. Congratulations to them, and thanks to everyone who submitted.

Excerpts

From Ross Weldon’s “Walking a Dog in Vancouver”:

A pug greeted us at the door yapping. It had a face like a fat bat. On the right was Chris’s bedroom, which he seemed to use as a depository for used condoms and damp towels. I followed a trail of malteaser-sized pieces of dog shit into the living room/kitchen where a Hispanic girl wearing a nightgown was passed out on the couch. There was graffiti on the walls. The room smelled like an ashtray on fire. I thought I had woken up in an episode of NYPD Blue.

From Ryan Van Runkle’s “Three Days in Madrid”:

“What’s your story?” asked John, a guy in our group who was six foot nine.

“I live in Ireland,” I said.

“Yeah,” he said, “Yeah.” He took a big swig of Coors Light. “Are you working?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I work with horses.” I was telling everyone I worked with horses. I figured it would make me sound masculine and earthy. It was true I did work with horses, but I was telling all sorts of lies about training them and breeding them when all I did was shovel horse shit.

“Yeah,” John said, “Yeah, Cowboy.”

“I know it brother,” I said.

Hope to see you all on the 27th.

Thanks to all who submitted autobiographical work as part of the final event in the SBA Summer Reading Series. The selected winners will have an opportunity to read with legendary man of letters Carlo Gébler, who will be discussing death. I’ve seen a draft of the talk, and I’ve spoken with Gébler about it: it’s going to be something else, so I hope you’ll all attend.

There were over thirty submissions. I want to sincerely thank everybody who sent in work; it was a real pleasure to read them all, and great to see so many people working in literary autobiography. I want to recognize six standout submissions. I’ll be selecting two from this list to read on August 27. The shortlist is:

Theresa Barnett
Jean Hanney
Pete Harpur
Alie Moore
Ryan Van Runkle
Ross Weldon

Many thanks to all those who submitted autobiographical work for the August 27 SBA reading event. The two readers will be selected shortly and notified.