Author Genevieve Hudson Virtual Event
In Partnership with The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA):
Let us bring authors to your living room via Zoom! Our next author in the series is Genevieve Hudson, who will talk with us about their new book Boys of Alabama and answer your questions.
Here are the details you need:
Date: Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Time: 5 PM
Registration is required via EVENTBRITE
If you elect to attend, we will email you on morning of the event with the link to attend this virtual event followed by the password you will need to enter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Genevieve Hudson is the author of the novel Boys of Alabama: a novel (2020), which O, the Oprah Magazine, Ms Magazine and Lit Hub selected as a recommended book to read in 2020. Their other books include the critical memoir A Little in Love with Everyone (2018), and Pretend We Live Here: Stories ( 2018), which was a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist and named a Best Book of 2018 by Entropy.
They hold an MFA in fiction from Portland State University. Their writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, selected as The Best Queer Internet Writing by them, and appears in McSweeney's, Catapult, TinHouse.com, No Tokens, Joyland, The Rumpus, and other places. They have received fellowships from the Fulbright Program, The MacDowell Colony, Caldera Arts, and The Vermont Studio Center.
They are a Visiting Fiction Faculty member at Antioch University-Los Angeles's MFA Program, a freelance writer, and also work in advertising . They live in Portland, Oregon.
Follow them on Instagram @gkhudson, on Twitter @genhudson, and on Co-Star @gehudson.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In this bewitching debut novel, a sensitive teen, newly arrived in Alabama, falls in love, questions his faith, and navigates a strange power. While his German parents don't know what to make of a South pining for the past, shy Max thrives in the thick heat. Taken in by the football team, he learns how to catch a spiraling ball, how to point a gun, and how to hide his innermost secrets.
Max already expects some of the raucous behavior of his new, American friends―like their insatiable hunger for the fried and cheesy, and their locker room talk about girls. But he doesn't expect the comradery―or how quickly he would be welcomed into their world of basement beer drinking. In his new canvas pants and thickening muscles, Max feels like he's "playing dress-up." That is until he meets Pan, the school "witch," in Physics class: "Pan in his all black. Pan with his goth choker and the gel that made his hair go straight up." Suddenly, Max feels seen, and the pair embarks on a consuming relationship: Max tells Pan about his supernatural powers, and Pan tells Max about the snake poison initiations of the local church. The boys, however, aren't sure whose past is darker, and what is more frightening―their true selves, or staying true in Alabama.
Writing in verdant and visceral prose that builds to a shocking conclusion, Genevieve Hudson "brilliantly reinvents the Southern Gothic, mapping queer love in a land where God, guns, and football are king" (Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks ). Boys of Alabama becomes a nuanced portrait of masculinity, religion, immigration, and the adolescent pressures that require total conformity.
