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Celebrate four new WVU Press authors and books at virtual showcase

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Join WVU Press as it partners with Pittsburgh’s White Whale Bookstore to showcase four of recently published books in a virtual showcase on Wednesday, June 16, at 7 p.m. on Zoom.  

Hear from WVU’s very own Renée K. Nicholson, author of “Fierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness”; Geoffrey Hilsabeck, author of “American Vaudeville”; Shaun Slifer, author of “So Much to Be Angry About: Appalachian Movement Press and Radical DIY Publishing, 1969-1979”; and Deesha Philyaw, author of “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” and recent winner of both the 2020/2021 Story Prize and the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. This is going to be a fantastic virtual party you won’t want to miss.

Free registration will end at 6:30pm on June 16 and you will receive the link to the meeting the day of the event via email. Contact events@whitewhalebookstore.com if you miss this cut-off and need a ticket. 

Register for this virtual showcase. 

About the authors and praise for their new releases:

‘American Vaudeville’

Geoffrey Hilsabeck is the author of the poetry collection “Riddles, Etc.” His poems and essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Believer, Paris Review Daily, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere. He lives in Pittsburgh.

“Hilsabeck is intuitive, canny, penetrating, and wise, and he has absorbed and can play all the tones in the vast calliope of the American language. ‘American Vaudeville’ is a short book, but it is dense with evocation, each sentence expanding to fill the room. You will read it more than once.” —From the foreword by Luc Sante

‘Fierce and Delicate’

Renée K. Nicholson is the author of two poetry collections, “Roundabout Directions to Lincoln Center” and “Post Script,”and coeditor of the anthology “Bodies of Truth: Stories of Illness, Disability, and Medicine.” She serves as director of the humanities center at West Virginia University.

“Renée Nicholson writes with the grace, determination, and, yes, fierceness needed to succeed in the world of professional dance, so it is no surprise that “Fierce and Delicate” is such a remarkable and en pointe memoir-in-essays, as breathtaking and beautiful as ballet itself. Nicholson’s voice blends absolute honesty with a lovely, lyrical descriptive style, and each essay is a pure pleasure to read. Bravo!” —Dinty W. Moore, author of “Between Panic and Desire”

‘So Much to Be Angry About’

Shaun Slifer is an artist, writer, and museum professional based in Pittsburgh. He is the creative director at the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum and a founding member of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative.

“’So Much to Be Angry About’ is an example of the best impulses of people’s history, careful and caring in its attention to people and places, disposing of nothing, casting a loving and critical eye and turning over stones, not just of movement history and its ideas, but also of the labor of the craftspeople, artists, and makers whose work spurs us on but sometimes goes without examination.” —Madeline ffitch, author of “Stay and Fight”

‘The Secret Lives of Church Ladies’

Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction and was winner of The Story Prize (2020/2021) and the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Her writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, McSweeney’s, the Rumpus, and elsewhere. She lives in Pittsburgh.

“In this year of constriction and pain, juicy goodness bursts from every page of Deesha Philyaw's debut short story collection. . . . This collection marks the emergence of a bona fide literary treasure." —Minneapolis Star Tribune