Want to see one of our very own MFA Alums, who has nabbed that elusive book deal and published her first collection of short stories to critical acclaim?  Well, you’re in luck, because this weekend you can meet Laura van den Berg in the flesh, and ask her about her inspiration, writing process, or the wild ride that’s taken her to the top of everyone’s list of new books to read!  (Buy your copy at Powells.com using our links below to support both Laura and Vernacular!)  Catch her at one or both of the following readings, and stay tuned for a Guest Blog Post from her later this month:

Friday, November 13 - 7:00 PM

Laura van den Berg and Paul Yoon read from their debut works of fiction– What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us and Once the Shore– at RiverRun Books, Portsmouth, NH

Sunday, November 15 - 2:00 PM

Laura van den Berg reads with Rachel Sherman, author of Living Room, at Newtonville Books, Newton MA (T access via D Line to Newton Highlands or Commuter Rail to Newtonville)

About What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us
The stories in Laura van den Berg’s rich and inventive debut illuminate the intersection of the mythic and the mundane.

A failed actress takes a job as a Bigfoot impersonator. A botanist seeking a rare flower crosses paths with a group of men hunting the Loch Ness Monster. A disillusioned missionary in Africa grapples with grief and a growing obsession with a creature rumored to live in the forests of the Congo. And in the title story, a young woman traveling with her scientist mother in Madagascar confronts her burgeoning sexuality and her dream of becoming a long-distance swimmer. Rendered with precision and longing, the women who narrate these starkly beautiful stories are consumed with searching for absolution, for solace, for the flash of extraordinary in the ordinary that will forever alter their lives.

Stories from this collection have appeared in One Story, American Short Fiction, The Literary Review, Boston Review, and The Indiana Review, among other publications.

About Once the Shore
With Once the Shore, Paul Yoon delivers an astonishing debut of linked short stories set on a South Korean island.
Spanning over half a century—from the years just before the Korean War to the present—the eight stories in this collection reveal an intricate and unforgettable portrait of a single place in its entirety. An elderly couple embark on a fishing boat in a harrowing journey to find their son, hoping that he has survived a bombing in the Pacific. A Japanese orphaned woman’s past revisits her with devastating consequences in a wartime hospital. A case of mistaken identity compels a husband and wife to question the foundation upon which their lives have been built. An AWOL American soldier finds refuge in a small farming community, unknowingly endangering its inhabitants. And in the celebrated title story, a horrific accident at sea becomes the catalyst for an unlikely friendship between an American widow and a young waiter at a coastal resort.

These stories capture, with lyrical precision, the moments in which lives shift and unravel-where loss is ultimately turned into a search for reconciliation, and where the silences that pass between lovers and siblings, between parents and their children, are as powerful as the reverberations of war. Novelistic in scope, daring in its varied environments, Once the Shore introduces a remarkable new voice in international fiction.

About Living Room

The follow-up to her highly praised debut story collection, The First Hurt, Rachel Sherman’s Living Room is a beautiful and disarmingly direct portrait of a family in trouble. With the tone of a modern-day Jewish The Ice Storm set in Long Island, imbued with Alice Munro’s fascination with personal history, Living Room is a deep exploration of the ripple effects of mental illness on a family, as well as a look at generational differences in mating and marriage, and a wry, wise look at suburban angst.

Tags:   Alum Month · emerson MFA · kim · Laura van den Berg · Newtonville Books · Paul Yoon · Rachel ShermanNo Comments