Monday, August 5, 2013

Just Published: Patricia Engel's It's Not Love, It's Just Paris

MFA alumna Patricia Engel's first novel, It's Not Love, It's Just Paris, debuts August 6th with a launch reading at Books & Books in Coral Gables.  On the summer recommended reading lists of the L.A. Times, Time Out New York, and Flavorwire, It's Not Love, It's Just Paris has been praised in early reviews by the Miami Herald as "a clear-eyed recasting of a classic storyline executed with confidence and just enough city-of-lights magic" and by the Tampa Bay Times as "warm, quirky, and intelligently observed."

Engel's first book, the 2010 story collection Vida, was a  New York Times Notable Book of the Year, finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Fiction Award and Young Lions Fiction Award, won the fiction silver medal in the Florida Book Awards, and was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and L.A. Weekly.  Her fiction has appered in The Atlantic, Boston Review, Harvard Review, and Guernica. More information about her work and where you can catch up with her on her book tour can be found at her website.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

John Dufresne Launches No Regrets, Coyote

John Dufresne's fifth novel No Regrets, Coyote, has been published to critical acclaim. In the New York Times, Marilyn Stasio calls it "a goulishly funny crime novel," and "dazzling, even by the exacting standards of South Florida crime fiction." And Library Journal says it's a "classy and darkly witty thriller." Dufresne's first ventures into crime writing, stories in Miami Noir and Boston Noir, were each chosen for inclusion in Best American Mysteries, but this is his first venture into a full-length mystery.

A large crowd, including many members of the FIU MFA community were on hand Friday, August 2nd, for the book launch at Books & Books in Coral Gables. The reading and q&a were live-streamed online and can be still be viewed.  Or listen to NPR's All Things Considered interview. You can see the schedule for appearances on the No Regrets, Coyote book tour, and find links to more reviews, at JohnDufresne.com.