Save the date: amazing fiction reading in December

A National Book Award nominee at Pacific Standard? That's right: Joshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to the End (Little, Brown), nominated for this year's National Book Award, will read on December 18, with Porochista Khakpour, author of Sons and Other Flammable Objects (Grove), as part of our initial Fiction Night. More info below:

The Pacific Standard Fiction Series - Inaugural Night
Tuesday, Dec. 18th, 7:00 p.m.
82 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. (between St. Marks and Bergen)

featuring Joshua Ferris and Porochista Khakpour
hosted by Garth Risk Hallberg

Books available on-site!
Drink specials to be chosen by dartboard!

Joshua Ferris' debut novel, THEN WE CAME TO THE END, was a finalist
for this year's National Book Award. Mr. Ferris' shorter fiction has
appeared in the BEST NEW AMERICAN VOICES series and the NEW STORIES
FROM THE SOUTH series, and in THE IOWA REVIEW and PRAIRIE SCHOONER. He
lives in Brooklyn.

"Expansive, great-hearted and acidly funny....Even after moving on and
rebuilding their lives, the employees who exit Ferris's unnamed firm
come to miss it, the drudgery, the infuriations, the hours spent with
'this person or that who rankled and bugged and offended angels in
heaven.' And the reader will be able to empathize, coming to the end
of this perceptive and darkly entertaining novel."
- New York Times Book Review

Porochista Khakpour's debut novel, SONS AND OTHER FLAMMABLE OBJECTS,
has been named an "Editor's Choice" by The New York Times and one of
"Fall's Best" by The Chicago Tribune. Ms. Khakpour graduated from the
Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars M.A. program, and has
written for The Chicago Reader, The Village Voice, and Paper, among
others. Born in Iran and raised in Los Angeles, she now lives in
Brooklyn.

"The characters burst from the page in fiery exchanges, while their
chaotic inner lives are conveyed with witty precision....Khakpour's
comic sense of familial tensions - particularly father-son enmity - is
infectious." - The New Yorker

Garth Risk Hallberg is the author of A FIELD GUIDE TO THE NORTH
AMERICAN FAMILY.

"Beautiful because of the gentle way the story of two suburban
families unravels for the reader. Beautiful because each of the short
entries that make up the novella is accompanied by a photograph,
sometimes bizarre or haunting, but always a pleasure to behold.
Beautiful because the book itself has all the elements that make the
act of reading seem like an event." -Bookslut

The Pacific Standard Fiction Series aims to showcase the intense and
varied literary energies of Brooklyn by pairing writers from the
borough and beyond. We offer fine stories and appealing beverages in a
civilized setting. In 2008, readings will take place the first and
third Tuesday of every month...more or less.