MOUNT VERNON – The Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County has extended its popular community book discussion program into November with a visit from Ohio Writer Michael Croley, author of "Any Other Place: Stories."
Touted as “...a story collection of immense power” by National Book Award winning author Min Jin Lee, Croley’s stories “...take us from the Appalachian regions of rural Kentucky to Memphis to a village in South Korea in 13 engaging stories of displacement, belonging and love.”
The library will sponsor a book giveaway of "Any Other Place" at the main library beginning Wednesday, Nov. 2, and continuing while supplies last. Croley’s Ohio Writers Series event is Tuesday, Nov. 15, at Knox Memorial Building Veterans Hall, at 112 E. High St. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., and seasonal mocktails will be served. This program is free and open to the public.
Croley was born in the foothills of the Appalachians. He is the author of "Any Other Place: Stories," winner of the James Still Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the Weatherford Award. He is also the co editor (with Jack Shuler) of "Midland: Reports from Flyover Country." His reporting, stories and essays have appeared in Esquire, The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, VQR, The Paris Review, Kenyon Review, LitHub, Narrative and elsewhere. He is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, the Kentucky Arts Council and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. He teaches at Denison University and is on the visiting faculty at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
The Library’s Ohio Writers Series is a collaboration with Mount Vernon Arts Consortium, the Kenyon Review, Kenyon College Office for Community Partnerships and Ariel-Foundation Park. Previous Ohio Writers Series events featured Lee Martin, Alison Stine, Marcus Jackson, Joey Kim and Ayendy Bonifacio, Ira Sukrungruang and Lyn Ford. The May-October author visits and book giveaways were funded by Humanities Grants for Libraries, an initiative of the American Library Association made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
Reservations are encouraged, but not required for this program. Visit www.knox.net, email knoxwrites1@gmail.com or call 740-392-2665, Ext. 259, for more information.