Most of our readers know him and his work fairly well, but we never miss an opportunity to hear Jess Walter read. Not only was he was a headlining author of EWU's Get Lit! Festival in April, reading with Colson Whitehead as well as participating in the Comedy as Commentary panel, but he's been a longtime supporter of the literary arts in Spokane. He's the author of five novels and one nonfiction book, including The Zero (2006), The Financial Lives of Poets (2009), and most recently, Beautiful Ruins (2012). He is the winner of the Edgar Allen Poe award, a National Book Award Finalist, and has been published in a variety of magazines, literary journals, and newspapers. His books have been sold in fifteen different countries, translated into thirteen languages, and his success won't stop with his latest publication- he already has another book on deck, a collection of short stories to be released in March 2013.
Beautiful Ruins, the novel, begins on the sun-drenched shores of an Italian coastline, featuring a relationship between a simple innkeeper and a dying American actress. Their romance, whose origins lay in 1962 Italy, are rekindled 50 years later and half a world away on American soil. History, dreams, and memories arise in the novel, which he'll read from at Auntie's Bookstore on June 12 at 7 p.m.You won't want to miss it!
