Founded in 1900, the American Booksellers Association is a national not-for-profit trade organization that works to help independently owned bookstores grow and succeed. Its annual winter meeting will take place this year in Albuquerque, New Mexico from January 22-25. Amid a program packed with information for independent booksellers, attendees will have the chance to meet forthcoming author Steven Wingate.

Wingate is the associate editor of Fiction Writers Review and an associate professor of English at South Dakota State University. His book, Of Fathers and Fire, is the newest volume in the celebrated Flyover Fiction series from UNP, and will be released April 1. He will participate in the Lunchtime Author Reception this Friday, January 25 at 12:00-1:30 p.m. in the Brazos Room. Advanced reader copies of his book will be available at the reception as well as in the Galley Room.

A little bit about Of Fathers and Fire:

Tommy Sandor wrestles with the man he wants to become and the man his 1980 town of Suborney, Colorado expects him to be. After Tommy abandons plans to join the Marines, he is haunted by Ronald Reagan’s “Let’s Make America Great Again” campaign slogan, a platitude his neighbors have taken to heart. When the Sons and Daughters of Jesus and Mary walk into town, led by the mysteriously powerful Richie Thorpe, the ragtag missionary group shows Tommy that he doesn’t have to die for his country in order to serve his community.

Faith, jazz, truth, and magic carry Tommy along his journey of self-discovery. Meanwhile his mother, unwilling to show who she really is, responds to Tommy’s journey by twisting herself into someone else entirely, someone able to fit into a world of her own choosing rather than Richie Thorpe’s.

Not going to the Winter Institute but dying to get an ARC? Check out our NetGalley page for a digital advanced reader copy!