We hope it's not too late to mention last week's delightful visit from Kevin Wilson, a young writer currently residing and teaching in Sewanee, Tennessee. Surely there is no harder task for a book-touring writer than to sell your debut collection of short stories in a recession economy, but Mr. Wilson succeeded masterfully. He had two things going for him:
1.) a great new story entitled "Goat," which involved burglary and possible bestiality, and held the attending crowd rapt, delivering much therapeutic laughter;
2.) it wasn't so much about peddling books for Wilson as eating, which he did with a heartiness and devotion that we all admired.
Touring with his father, a real sport, the Wilsons were eating their way across the South and were especially interested in burgers and barbecue. Luckily they found Greenwood to be a worthy stop. You should read Kevin's account of his visit with our pal Spooney at his blog.
Officially Kevin was at Turnrow promoting his book Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, and as a testament to his great reading, every party present at the reading purchased a copy. That rarely happens.
In addition to sharing our mutual love of meat and books, we were glad to have found another Charles Portis devotee. Kevin told us that he'd heard the Coen Brothers were remaking True Grit, keeping more faithful to Portis' novel, which was less about Rooster Cogburn (made famous by John Wayne) than 14-year-old Mattie Ross.
