Anthony Marra returns! Friday, February 26 at Verge Center for the Arts

We are thrilled, excited, and feeling very lucky to announce our featured writer for February – Anthony Marra.  At Verge Center for the Arts, 625 S St, Sacramento. Doors open at 7PM: readings begin at 7:30. A $10 donation is suggested

One of the most acclaimed young writers in America, Marra burst onto the literary scene three years ago with his first novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. It garnered universal praise from critics, won the 2014 National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize and  appeared on more than twenty “best books” year-end lists.  His follow-up short story collection The Tsar of Love and Techno, published in October 2015,  had critics and readers once again scrabbling for superlatives. “Audacious…brilliant…nearly Tolstoyan,” gushed the notoriously tough New York Times Book Review. “Dazzling…heart-rending cumulative power,” enthused Newsday.  The Tsar of Love and Techno was recently named a finalist for the National Book Critics award in fiction.

Marra has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Stegner Fellow, and a Whiting Award and Berlin Prize Fellowship recipient. He lives in Oakland, California and teaches at Stanford University. There’s more on his website  http://anthonymarra.net/

Marra’s brilliant, funny, sad, gloriously heartbreaking story , “The Grozny Tourist Bureau” from The Tsar of Love and Techno will be read by Ethan Ireland, a multidisciplinary veteran of  film, television and theater, with twenty years as a working professional in both performance and technical roles. The son of noted “lit noir”author Patrick Ireland, Ethan is a writer & director of several short films, and has worked as a voice actor and a performer for both stage and screen since 1995. Most recently he appeared in EMH’s productions of After Hours and An Almost Perfect Person. He has performed at Now Hear This: A Story and Music Performance Series produced by Atim Udoffia.

Also appearing is Bay area writer Laurie Ann Doyle. She is the winner of the Alligator Juniper National Fiction Award, as well as a nominee for Best New American Voices and a Pushcart Prize. Her book of short fiction, World Gone Missing, is a finalist for the Livingston Press Award and a story from the collection appears in their annual fiction anthology. Doyle also has been published in Jabberwock Review, Arroyo Literary Review, Under the Sun, Dogwood Journal, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at The San Francisco Writers Grotto and UC Berkeley, and is one of the founders of the Bay area reading series Babylon Salon.

Her short story “Or Best Offer” will be read by Tara Henry. who is thrilled to be returning 

to Stories on Stage. Highlights of Tara’s recent roles include: Emma/Ensemble in The Behavior of Broadus (Capital Stage), Fanny Dashwood/Charlotte Palmer inSense & Sensibility(Sacramento Theater Co), Cassandra in Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike (Main Street Theatre Works), Charlotte/Mrs.Gardner in Pride & Prejudice(Sacramento Theatre Co), Both Dromios in A Comedy of Errors (Sac Shakespeare Festival), Goneril in King Lear (TAAC), Mildred in The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild(Costa Mesa Playhouse) and Fantasy Festival 28 cast member with B Street Theatre.

We’ll see you at Verge Center for the Arts on Friday, February 26. Get there early  for the best seats! Copies of Anthony Marra’s books will be for sale.