What is the beginning of a story if not a hypothesis to be tested in its telling?

My next novel, Notes From the Missing, will be published by the legendary Red Hen Press in early 2028!

Notes From the Missing is about a brilliant, troubled physicist who abandons his career at FermiLab in Chicago in order to search for a childhood friend who has vanished in New Orleans. There he finds that memory is as strange as quantum theory, and the pursuit of redemption is perilous.

This is a novel about art and science, love and loss. Time and truth get weird. The Rustbelt traumas of the characters’ youths superpose with adulthood’s inescapable and chaotic gravity. It’s a mystery turned inside out and an existential treatise on the creative life in an age fraught with doubt and despair.

I gave this one everything I got, and I’m biased of course but I think it turned out pretty good. I can’t wait to share it with you all, and I couldn’t be more excited to have this book shepherded by Red Hen, one of the great contemporary stewards of American big-L Literature.

Here’s a photograph of a dear friend I took, years ago at the Krewe du Vieux parade in New Orleans. I looked at this photo a lot while working on Notes From the Missing.

The Cincinnati Review nominated my short story “Snapper” for inclusion in the anthology, Best Microfiction 2023, which will be published by Pelekinesis Press in July. Deb Olin Unferth served as final judge for series editors Meg Pokrass and Gary Fincke, and I’m thrilled to share that Unferth selected “Snapper” to be included. You can see the full list of stories to be included at this link; it’s a wonderful group to be a part of. I’m glad “Snapper” found a home with The Cincinnati Review. This story has had a long pre-publication life. Years ago, it was a finalist in contests at both American Short Fiction and The Sycamore Review, and it had garnered many close calls and rejections since. I’ve always thought it had some truth to it though and readers would like it should they read it…and so I’m very grateful to see it finding some readers now through the good work of the people at The Cincinnati Review and Best Microfiction.

For all of you in the Toronto-Buffalo-Niagara area! I’ve been invited to the Author’s Series 2017, hosted by the Hotel Dallavalle and Bella Vita Ristorante in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. It’s coming up soon – January 21st!

It is being held in conjunction with the region’s world-famous Niagara Icewine Festival. The Author’s Series includes cocktails, a multi-course dinner, and wine pairings. And I understand that Niagara-on-the-Lake is a beautiful arts community, nestled against the Lake Ontario shoreline. I’m really looking forward to visiting.

It’s going to be a fun one. Click on the poster below for more information, and please contact the hotel for tickets.

The Infinite received a solid review in The New York Times on Sunday, Nov. 20. Many thanks to Lili Wright for her thoughtful look at my novel.

Read the review here.