Jonathan Corcoran, author of The Rope Swing
From: Tuesday, April 19th at 7:00 PM
To: Tuesday, April 19th at 9:00 PM
Location:East End Book Exchange
A once-booming West Virginia rail town no longer has a working train. The residents left behind in this tiny hamlet look to the mountains that surround them on all sides: The outside world encroaches, and the buildings of the gilded past seem to crumble more every day.
These are the stories of outsiders, the down and out. What happens to the young boy whose burgeoning sexuality pushes him to the edge of the forest to explore what might be love with another boy? What happens when one lost soul finally makes it to New York City, yet the reminders of his past life are omnipresent? What happens when an old woman struggles to find a purpose and reinvent herself after decades of living in the shadow of her platonic life partner? What happens to those who dare to live their lives outside of the strict confines of the town’s traditional and regimented ways?
The characters in The Rope Swing, gay and straight alike, yearn for that which seems so close but impossibly farthe world over the jagged peaks of the mountains.
Jonathan Corcorans debut story collection, The Rope Swing, is forthcoming from Vandalia Press in April 2016. His work has been named a finalist for the Flannery OConnor Award in Short Fiction and a semi-finalist for the St. Lawrence Book Award. He received a BA in Literary Arts from Brown University and an MFA in Fiction Writing from Rutgers University-Newark. He was born and raised in a small town in West Virginia and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.