I’m very excited to share the news that Damn Love has been released as an audio book by ListenUp Audio Books, a start up publisher based in Atlanta. Check it out here and while you’re there, check out some of the other books ListenUp has audio published.
I’ve always been a fan of audio books and the last few years they’ve become a key part of our regular drives to St. Louis.
I’m excited to be taking part in Malaprops “Indies First Storytime Day,” a May 17th daylong event that involves local authors reading from their favorite children’s books:
Join us as local Western NC authors read from their favorite children’s books! Building on the success of the Indies First movement launched last year by Sherman Alexie, the American Booksellers Association has announced its inaugural Indies First Storytime Day which will be celebrated at independent bookstores across the country on May 17, 2014, in conjunction with Children’s Book Week, which runs from May 12 –18. Appropriate for children ages 1-99. Location: Malaprops Bookstore, 55 Haywood Rd, Asheville, NC.
In the age of social media, news can travel funny routes. So it took a hot minute yesterday to process a tweet from my friend Laura (@RevEverett) with the news that Damn Love won an honorable mention 2014 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction. It’s a total honor to receive this recognition and I’m sending big congratulations to winner NoViolet Bulawayo and other finalists and honorable mention awardees.
A few weeks back, came the news that Damn Love is a also a 2014 finalist in the Lambda Literary Award General Fiction category.
From November 5 to 8, I’ll be at Brown University in Providence, RI, for a residency called “With Usefulness and Reputation,” joining fellow alum Nathan Schneider for a week of conversations and events about faith in public life, activism, and writing. I’ll be reading from Damn Love and joining Nathan, whose work includes Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse, for the following events:
With Usefulness and Reputation: A Residency
Two alumni building a more humane world
Reverend Jasmine Beach Ferrara ’98 and Nathan Schneider ’06
Events November 6 through 8, 2013
Lunch with LGBTQ Activist Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara
Wednesday, November 6 at Noon
J. Walter Wilson, Room 411
Please RSVP to kelly_garrett@brown.edu no later than Monday, November 4
Writers at the Intersection of Sex, Power, God
Discussion forum with Nathan and Jasmine
Wednesday, November 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Salomon 001
Post-event conversation with refreshments
9:30 p.m.
Salomon 003
Book Signing with Jasmine
Thursday, November 7 at 3:00 p.m.
Brown Bookstore
Public Lives, Public Faith: A New Approach to LGBT Advocacy in the South
Lecture given by Jasmine Beach-Ferrara
Thursday, November 7 at 7:30 p.m.
List 120
Book Signing with Nathan Schneider
Friday, November 8 at 2:00 p.m.
Brown Bookstore
What Proofs for God Really Prove
Becket Lecture given by Nathan Schneider
Friday, November 8 at 4 p.m.
Petteruti Lounge
I was thrilled to do an interview with Lambda Literary about Damn Love earlier this summer. Lambda Literary is a go-to site for LGBT writing, featuring interviews, reviews and a great events calendar.
As an avid reader of People Magazine, I was thrilled to have Damn Love listed as a “Great New Read in Fiction” in a recent issue.
For years now, I’ve been a big fan of Malaprops, a local bookstore in Asheville, N.C. that has been around for 31 years and sets a very high bar for what a bookstore can be. I’ve daydreamed about doing a reading there for years, as I sat and wrote in their cafe, or roamed the aisles. It was a thrill to get to do so last night and I’m so grateful to the family, friends, teachers, and strangers who filled the place up.
I read from “Love the Soldier,” a story in Damn Love, and then we had a lively Q & A session, followed by drinks at The Southern, a downtown bar.
The lovely folks at Largehearted Boy, a music and literature blog, invited me to participate in Book Notes, which involves writers creating playlists for their books.
You can check out my playlist for Damn Love here, which includes the new classic “Hold On” by Alabama Shakes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le-3MIBxQTw
A summer night in New York City, with friends and family for a reading at McNally Jackson. Chris Adrian, a generous friend and writer, hosted the conversation and reading, as part of the bookstore’s ongoing series of such events. It was a thrill for me.
Tonight (June 11), I’ll be reading with Chris Adrian, author of The Great Night and The Children’s Hospital among other books. We’ll be at McNally Jackson in NYC as part of a series they host that pairs writers for readings and conversations about writing. Chris and I met in divinity school, where our conversations always left me inspired and laughing.
Jasmine Beach-Ferrara 