Featherproof Books is excited to announce the Featherproof Books AWP Afterparty—a glorious night of readings and music featuring a book release celebration for Amelia Gray's AM/PM (Featherproof Books), and a return of Jonathan Messinger's THE DOLLAR STORE. It’s also a joint book release celebration for Kyle Beachy's THE SLIDE (Dial Press) with music from (Un)Bound Stems and Serengeti. The show begins at 8pm with The Dollar Store—readings inspired by junk—featuring featherproof authors Todd Dills (Sons of the Rapture) and Christian Tebordo (The Awful Possibilities) and Patrick Somerville (The Cradle). Then, the dual-release party kicks off with readings from Gray, Beachy, and featherproof co-publisher Zach Plague (boring boring boring boring boring boring boring) and playwright Chris Bower.

Featherproof Books AWP afterparty:

Start: Friday, February 13, 2009, 8:00pm

End: Saturday, February 14, 2009, 2:00am

Where: The Beat Kitchen, 2100 W Belmont www.beatkitchen.com

Cost: $8

21+

The Dollar Store, 8pm:

Jonathan Messinger

Todd Dills

Christian Tebordo

Patrick Somerville

Release Party, 9:15pm:

Amelia Gray's AM/PM (Book Release and Reading)

Kyle Beachy's The Slide (Book Release and Reading)

Chris Bower

Zach Plague

Music, 10:30pm:

(un)Bound Stems

Serengeti

Amelia Gray’s writing has appeared in The Onion, American Short Fiction, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, DIAGRAM, and Caketrain, among others. Her work has been chosen as the finalist for McSweeney’s Amanda David Highwire Contest and DIAGRAM’s Innovative Fiction Contest. AM/PM is her first book. She currently lives in Austin, Texas.

AM/PM:

If anything's going to save the characters in Amelia Gray's debut from their troubled romances, their social improprieties, or their hands turning into claws, it's a John Mayer concert tee. In AM/PM, Gray's flash-fiction collection, impish humor is on full display. Tour through the lives of 23 characters across 120 stories full of lizard tails, Schrödinger boxes and volcano love. Follow June, who wakes up one morning covered in seeds; Leonard, who falls in love with a chaise lounge; and Andrew, who talks to his house in times of crisis. An intermittent love story as seen through a darkly comic lens, Gray mixes poetry and prose, humor and hubris to create a truly original piece of fiction.

Kyle Beachy’s writing has appeared in THE2NDHAND, Otium and as a featherproof mini-book. He teaches at the School of the Art Institute, and lives in Chicago.

The Slide:

At once an offbeat love story, a moving portrait of a family in crisis, and a darkly funny American comedy, Kyle Beachy's arresting debut novel—written in prose that is swift, stunning, and sweet—heralds the arrival of a remarkable new voice in fiction. Kyle Beachy has woven a uniquely affecting story of the long and hard, then quick and hard, struggle to grow up.

Zach Dodson’s hybrid typo/graphic novel, boring boring boring boring boring boring boring, came out last year under the nom de plume Zach Plague. He is co-publisher of Featherproof Books. His design appears at Bleached Whale Design, and The Show N’ Tell Time Talk Show. His writing has appeared in The2ndHand, Opium, Take the Handle, and Proximity Magazine. His design has appeared in MAKE Magazine, Punk Planet, Resonance, Mule, and Bagazine.

Abraham Levitan is the frontman for Chicago outfit Baby Teeth.

Jonathan Messinger is the author of the short story collection, Hiding Out, which was named one of the best books of 2007 by the Omaha World-Herald. He co-publishes Featherproof Books, a small press publishing novels and downloadable mini-books. His fiction has most recently appeared in Other Voices and Awake! an anthology from Soft Skull Press, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Patrick Somerville's first book of stories, Trouble, was published in September of 2006 (Vintage) and named 2006's Best Book by a Chicago Author by Time Out Chicago. His writing has appeared in One Story, Epoch, GQ, Esquire, and Best American Nonrequired Reading, and his first novel, The Cradle, will be published by Little, Brown in March of 2009. This spring he will also be serving as the Simon Blattner Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Northwestern University.

Christian TeBordo is the author of three novels: We Go Liquid, The Conviction & Subsequent Life of Savior Neck and Better Ways of Being Dead. His first story collection, The Awful Possibilities, will be published by featherproof books in the fall.