Joining Tom in the studio is writer Kathy Flann. She's the author of two short-story collections, Get a Grip (Texas Review Press, just published), which won the 2014 George Garrett Fiction Prize, and Smoky Ordinary (Snake Nation Press, 2008), which earned Flann the Serena McDonald Kennedy Award. Her novella, Mad Dog (White Eagle Coffee Shop Press, 2007), received the A. E. Coppard Prize for Fiction. Flann's fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including The O. Henry Festival Stories (1998). She's an associate professor at Goucher College in Towson, where she teaches courses in fiction and creative non-fiction.
Get a Grip, her latest short-story collection, is a terrific read, set mostly in and around Baltimore, and peopled with fascinating and richly textured characters, including two 7-foot-tall Estonian brothers hoping to get admitted to Loyola College, an aspiring writer trying to keep her deadbeat dad at bay, and a guy who finds a meteor in Catonsville. Their stories mirror the Baltimore region's charms, complexity and self-doubts.
You can meet Kathy Flann for a reading and discussion Thursday night at the Ivy Bookshopin North Baltimore. She’ll be joined by poet David Ebenbach and novelist Leslie Pietrzyk. The event begins at 7:00.