Check out this rad poster Julee Dunekacke Jaeger put together for the Midwest tour I’m doing next month with Tyrone Jaeger and Dave Madden. Thanks, Julee!
And if you happen to reside along the route, please come check out the reading and say hello. (Links to more information can be found on the events page.)
Check out the below guidelines for the 2nd annual 1877 Society Writing Contest. I’m very happy to chair the 2016 awards committee along with fellow judges Liz Kay and Andrew Hilleman.
Last year my story “Violate the Leaves” (recently published in Boulevard and a part of my forthcoming-next-month collection Bad Faith) won the prize for best short story in the inaugural awards.
The contest is open to Omaha-area writers aged 49 and younger. The deadline is July 31. There are cash prizes and no entry fee. I’ll say that again: prizes, no fee. What’s not to love about that?
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The 1877 Society invites Omaha-area writers in their forties and younger to submit unpublished prose and poetry to the second annual 1877 Society Writing Contest. Personal essays and short stories under 5,000 words may be submitted in the prose category. One single-spaced poem of under three pages may be submitted in the poetry category. Entrants may submit one entry in both categories if they so choose.
Submissions are due using the following form by 11:59 p.m. CST on Sunday, July 31, 2016.
Winners will be announced during a ceremony at the (downtown) Omaha Lit Fest in October.
The winning poem and prose entry will each receive a $500 cash prize. A third, $250 prize will be awarded to the best work (either poetry or prose). The winning works will also be featured in Omaha Public Library’s digital collection. All winners will be selected by the awards committee.
The 2016 awards committee is:
Theodore Wheeler, author of the short story collection Bad Faith (July 2016) and the forthcoming novel Kings of Broken Things (August 2017).
Liz Kay, author of the novel Monsters: a Love Story (June 2016) and a founding editor of Spark Wheel Press and burntdistrict poetry journal.
Andrew Hilleman, author of the forthcoming novel World, Chase Me Down (January 2017).
For more information, contact Theodore Wheeler (tedwheeler@gmail.com) or call the Omaha Public Library Foundation (402-444-4589).
If you’re in the area of Omaha, Nebraska on the evening of June 30 your presence is requested at Pageturners Lounge to help celebrate the release of Bad Faith, my debut collection of short fiction!
Here’s the Facebook event page. If you’re planning on coming and can RSVP that would help immensely with planning.
There will be a short reading, donuts, and ample celebration. Have a drink or two, buy a book, and get a personalized inscription. Omaha poet and writing-group-buddy Felicity White will emcee. Copies of Bad Faith will be available for purchase courtesy of The Bookworm, weeks before it is available for purchase in stores, by the way.
I hope to see you there!
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Check out the awesome wrap-around cover for my short story collection Bad Faith! The cover was designed by Brian Mihok with artwork by Michael Mihok. Brian does all the covers for Queen’s Ferry Press, and I’m really excited about what he’s done with Bad Faith. This definitely has the QFP feel to it while also representing the book pretty well too. Thanks to Brian and Michael, and to QFP Editor Erin McKnight for all her hard work in helping to get everything just so.
PS: I heard that the advance reader copies went out to book reviewers last week, so we’re getting there.
PPS: Check out my events page, as some book tour dates have been added. I’ll be out on the road reading with Tyrone Jaeger (So Many True Believers) and Dave Madden (If You Need Me I’ll Be Over There) in early July, with stops in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Iowa City, and Des Moines, in addition to Omaha and Lincoln. Thanks so much to QFP publicist Kelsey Hall for setting these up. I’m hoping to secure a few dates on the coasts soon too, so stay tuned.
Some pub quiz news to share, as last week we finalized the schedule of guest hosts for the Pageturners Lounge Literary Pub Quiz through July. As a refresher, this is more or less a traditional trivia night–21 questions, teams competing for prizes, we meet at 8pm on the first Wednesday of every month–with the twist that we feature a literary guest to introduce to the community via a short interview and a special category of questions that the guest presents. Fellow Omaha writers Drew Justice and Ryan Borchers co-host the event with me. It’s been a lot of fun so far and the reception has been great.
Some of the categories so far include more usual topics like US Cities, Christmas Stories, and 20th Century Literature, and range to saucier topics like Buryin’ the Librarian, Hollywood Hunks, and Hotboxing with Baudelaire. See how much fun this is?
Having authors and editors come in to share a little about their work has been an interesting aspect to manage, particularly with the eclectic group of novelists, poets, editors, and librarians we’ve had in during the first five months. A lot of the time the whole idea of an author event can be kind of awkward in the sense that it’s typically an opportunity to sell the persona of the writer, and not necessarily their actual written work. That’s the cynical view anyway–and the pub quiz kind of cuts to the chase as far as this goes, hopefully generating some exposure for our authors and their projects. All the guests have seemed to enjoy themselves at least. And I’m really excited about who we will be welcoming the next few months. (JCC!)
Here’s a link to the Facebook page for our March 2 event, if you’re looking for more specific information. Otherwise, check out the extended schedule below.
PTL Pub Quiz Schedule (First Wednesday, 8pm, 5004 Dodge Street, Omaha, Neb.)
March 2: Britny Cordera, author of Wingmakers.
April 6: Blue River, literary journal run by the MFA students at Creighton University.
May 4: Jennine Capó Crucet, author of Make Your Home Among Strangers and How to Leave Hialeah.
June 1: David Philip Mullins, author of Greetings from Below.
July 6: Monsters of Short Fiction Tour, feat. Tyrone Jaeger (So Many True Believers), Dave Madden (If You Need Me I’ll Be Over There) and Theodore Wheeler (Bad Faith).
Since it’s been a while since I offered a general state of the blog type post, here’s the latest in the world of the uninitiated.
-A pub date has been set for Bad Faith! My short story collection will drop on July 12, 2016. And while you’re hurriedly marking your calendars, I’ve also set up a pre-release party at Pageturners Lounge for Thursday, June 30, which will the first opportunity to purchase the book, have it signed, and toast with the author.
Between working through final edits on the book, the first blurbs coming in, and setting up events for later this year, it’s been an exciting, sometimes nerve-wracking experience. There will even be a cover before long. It’s happening!
-A few of my short stories will be coming out in the next couple months. “Violate the Leaves” in the spring issue of Boulevard, in March; “The Hyphenates of Jackson County” in Artful Dodge, by the end of February; and “On a Train from the Place Called Valentine” in New Stories form the Midwest.
-You may have noticed a few updates around the site. The last year I’ve slowly been transitioning this space from its blog roots to more of a proper web site befitting a published author with multiple books to his name. Or something. The process should be finished shortly, with a static front page and all that. I’ll still be blogging here every once in a while, maybe even a little more frequently. The whole “travel” part of the blog kind of took a backseat the last couple years, as I wasn’t traveling much, saving up money for potential book tours and bigger trips. Posting the same photos of me at Royals games over and over didn’t quite have the same panache as the posts from my summer touring Europe.
-One last thing, I want to include a note about the success we’ve seen with the literary pub quiz I’ve been putting on at Pageturners with buddies Ryan Borchers and Drew Justice. The turnout has been great, and it seems like the enthusiasm grows each month. The next edition is in a week, on February 3 with guest host Wendy Townley of the 1877 Society. We’re getting some great guest stars lined up for the spring/summer season, and I can’t wait to share the lineup. But I will wait, and hope to have that posted here soon. The series has been a lot of fun and I’m psyched to keep this going through the rest of the year. If you’re around Omaha the first Wednesday of the month, stop on in and talk some literature with a copacetic group of bookish folks.
The Reader did a cool spread in their latest issue on the upcoming (downtown) Omaha Lit Fest to go along with Leo Adam Biga’s article “Lit Fest delves into what we fear, how we relate in extremis.” The article features some choice quotes from Lit Fest Director Timothy Schaffert and a few participating authors, myself included, for the October 16 & 17 event.
The issue is currently out all over Omaha, so pick up a copy if you see one. Or, read the article here, on the The Reader‘s webpage. Here an excerpt:
Ted Wheeler, author of the chapbook On the River, Down Where They Found Willy Brown and the related novel Kings of Broken Things, says, “So much of interesting literature is about social outcasts. I see that as the central duty of a writer – to tell the stories that shouldn’t be told, to make personal demons public, to dredge up buried history or explore the parts of society that have been pushed out to the margins. The literary writer’s job is to say what can’t be said in polite company.”
Schaffert says the work of Wheeler, Wesselman and fellow panelist Marilyn June Coffey has “a kind of mythology, whether folklore or historical incident or ancient mythology.”
Wheeler explores Will Brown’s 1919 lynching in Omaha.
“My main intention was to give it treatment in a way I hadn’t seen done in any history books. The trick wasn’t really in explaining why this horrible event happened here, but more about resisting the urge to rationalize a mass act of treachery by exploring what it was like to be at a race riot and get caught up it the swerve of violent extremism.
“What’s interesting to me and what’s unspeakable about it in a certain way is this point where mundane life intersects with a notorious crime.”
Thanks to writer Leo Adam Biga for this.
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Also, one last reminder. Opening night for the Pageturners Lounge Literary Pub Quiz (PTLLPQ for short) is this Wednesday, October 7 at 9pm. (Go here for more information. Or here.) In addition to some first-rate trivia, prizes, drinks, etc., we’re also featuring Timothy Schaffert as our guest co-quizmaster for the night. I’ll have a few questions just for Timothy about this year’s LitFest and his own popular novels (The Swan Gondola, Coffins of Little Hope). It will be fun. Even if the trivia is a total disaster, come laugh at me make a fool of myself. You can’t lose!
A quick note of thanks here to The 1877 Society for awarding my short story “Violate the Leaves” the prize for Best Short Story in their inaugural writing contest!
Here’s what they had to say about “Violate the Leaves”: “Wheeler’s story digs into the psyche of a military family through the eyes of a child whose mother is deployed. He is left to experience life with his father; it’s one much more grown-up than he’s used to.” That’s pretty much it!
The 1877 Society is a group of library enthusiasts and advocates in their twenties and thirties who support the Omaha Public Library Foundation. Please consider joining, as I recently did, if you’re in Omaha. It’s a fun club with monthly book-related events and certainly benefits a good cause. (This event in particular looks especially.) To join or for more information, send an email to 1877society@omahalibrary.org or call (402) 444-4589.
Thanks again to The 1877 Society, the judges, and to my fellow winners, Kristine Mahler and Benjamin Simon!
Another quick announcement this week. I’m pretty stoked to share that, along with MFA buddies Ryan Borchers and Drew Justice, I’m starting a literary-themed pub quiz at Pageturners Lounge in Omaha. This is a pretty traditional trivia night–21 questions, teams competing for prizes–with the twist that we’ll also feature a celebrity guest to introduce to the community via a short interview and a special category wherein the guest will be asking the questions. This should be fun, I think, and hopefully widen the literary community in Omaha a bit. While at Creighton the past couple years, I thought a lot about how to present authors and their work in a different way than what can sometimes seem like the sterile environment of a reading. This format should allow for a little more interactivity and playfulness. In addition to asking their five questions, the authors will play along in the game (with a five point handicap, of course) and will be around to sign copies of their books or chat or talk trash about who knows more than who. We’ll see how it goes.
Our first night is Wednesday, October 7 at 9pm. Pageturners is at 5004 Dodge Street–where the release party for my chapbook was held earlier this year–with Timothy Schaffert as our esteemed guest. If you can’t make it to the first go, we’ll be back the first Wednesday of every month. (See below for the schedule through February.)
Here’s a link to the Facebook event page if you require more information. Otherwise I’ll just see you there!
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PTL Pub Quiz Schedule
Theodore Wheeler 