Prize-winning Storywriter Barrett Swanson Reads at Central Library

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Left: Barrett Swanson Right: Scott Blackwood

Edgewood College English professor Barrett Swanson has authored numerous works of short fiction, including the acclaimed 2015 Pushcart Prize-winner “Annie Radcliffe, You Are Loved.” In this short story, Swanson follows three diverse characters—a drug-addicted Ph.D. student, a young boy watching his father die of cancer and a slightly awkward high school student whose ex dumped him on Facebook. This intriguing trio of strangers is deep and multi-dimensional, brought to life by Swanson’s engrossing narrative and humorous 21st-century style.

Swanson received his M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His most recent published works have been featured in Salt Hill, The Point, Ninth Letter and American Short Fiction. Swanson will perform a live reading at the Milwaukee Public Central Library from 3-4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 7. This free event will take place in the library’s Rare Books Room.

Following a horrific triple homicide of teenage girls in a Texas town, survivors are left to deal with the aftermath of unsolved tragedy. See How Small, Scott Blackwood’s new novel, is a genre-bending mystery/thriller with extremely sharp prose and deeply empathetic characters. Loosely based on a still-unsolved 1991 case in Austin, Texas, this meditation on grief, memory and mourning explodes with raw emotion. In this adaptation, Blackwood brings the three recently departed girls to life as characters in the narrative that watch over the town and its citizens from above. Moving back and forth in time, See How Small delivers a spellbinding examination of one crime’s lasting implications.

Blackwood is the author of three works of fiction; his debut novel, We Agreed to Meet Just Here, was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Award. He is also the author of two books of music-related nonfiction produced by musician Jack White. Blackwood currently teaches at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. He will appear at Boswell Book Co. at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 5.