Arise Bookstore Punk Rock Extravaganza

Come to Arise Bookstore Sunday, July 13 at 7pm to hear Razorcake editor Sean Carswell read from his new book, Train Wreck Girl. Plus readings from Joe Meno, Mickey Hess and local writer Sam Richard. Special musical guests Bla Bla Blacksheep (local two-person cute-core band).

Sean Carswell is a fiction writer and the co-editor of Razorcake, a national punk magazine. He is the author of several novels and short story collections, including his new novel, Train Wreck Girl (Manic D Press 2008). Sean also co-edits Gorsky Press, an independent Los Angeles-based book publisher. Carswell's writing frequently reflects the concerns of the working class. Carswell writes of the working class without either dehumanizing or romanticizing them, and his characters resist easy categorization because of their depth and complexity. Howard Zinn writes, "Sean Carswell is a wonderful storyteller. . . . Reading his stuff makes you laugh and makes you think." Despite working without the advantages of a large publishing house, Carswell has become something of a cult favorite in the American underground. His books routinely sell out their first printing, and he is a popular live performer, bringing a punk-rock ethic to the traditionally staid literary reading. He travels extensively, giving readings not just on college campuses and chain bookstores, but at punk shows and in bars. Carswell also works as a lecturer in English at California State University-Channel Islands in Camarillo, California.

Joe Meno is a fiction writer and playwright who lives in Chicago. A winner of the Nelson Algren Literary Award and the Society of Midland Author's Fiction Prize, he is the author of four novels, The Boy Detective Fails (Akashic 2006), Hairstyles of the Damned (Akashic 2004), Tender as Hellfire (St. Martin's 1999), and How the Hula Girl Sings (HarperCollins 2001.) His short story collection is Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir (TriQuarterly 2005.) His online serial, The Secret Hand, runs through Playboy magazine at playboy.com. His short fiction has been published in the likes of McSweeney's, Witness, TriQuarterly, Mid-American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Washington Square, Other Voices, Gulf Coast, and broadcast on NPR. He is also teaches creative writing at Columbia College Chicago.

Mickey Hess lives and writes in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, where he teaches at Rider University. He is the author of the acclaimed novel Big Wheel at the Cracker Factory (Pitchfork Battalion Publications 2003) and the zines One Thousand Pound Locket and El Cumpleanos de Paco. He edited the Greenwood Press anthology: The Icons of Hip-Hop (Greenwood Press 2007).

Arise is located at: 2441 Lyndale Avenue S, Minneapolis. For more information, call Arise at: 612-817-7110. $5 suggested donation, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.