Catherine Gammon

Dear Friends and Readers,

My new collection of stories, The Gunman and the Carnival, is coming, any minute, from Baobab Press. Please join me in celebrating — attend the launch in Pittsburgh if you’re close by or the March livestream event if you can (details below) — and if you’ll be at #AWP24 please stop by Baobab’s booth and show them some love.

And most of all, wherever you are, please read the book!

Advance Praise

“In The Gunman and the Carnival, Catherine Gammon mirrors the brightly fractured nature of our lives at the sharp edge of this American moment. Her characters are recognizable in their striving for human connection in our time of despair and isolation—and in their struggle for footing upon a sinking landscape. Stylistically limber and by turns meditative, restless, and moving, these stories bravely attempt to channel what it means to be alive in this world now, and now, and now.” — Lauren Acampora, The Hundred Waters

“Here are a handful of dreams crumbled to ash. Actors on the cusp of stardom, who instead of making it, find themselves playing dead bodies and waiting tables. A recovering alcoholic savoring a sense of stability, who gifts herself a birthday walk on the beach only to find a body washed up at her feet. A man and woman who fall easily in love, and then, just as easily, into mutual resentment. What does a person do when their life fails to meet their expectations, when their hopes wilt before they fully bloom? Catherine Gammon’s The Gunman and The Carnival is a collection full of strikingly familiar disappointments and betrayals woven through with an appreciation for moments of beauty amongst the daily degradations of contemporary life. Told with precision and honesty, these stories are richly nuanced explorations of desire, regret, hurt, and hard-earned acceptance. “ — Jenny Irish, I Am Faithful and Lupine

“Gammon sharply observes her characters, loves them for their flaws and their hopes, and moves them through worlds defamiliarized by her punchy, powerful prose. Reading The Gunman and the Carnival made me revel in the joy and intensity of what a story can show us.” — Gwen Kirby, Shit Cassandra Saw

Events coming up in Pittsburgh (and online)

Bottom Feeder Books, 415 Gettysburg Street, February 17, launch event 6 – 8 pm, with Jane McCafferty and Nancy Krygowski

White Whale Bookstore, 4754 Liberty Avenue, March 18, 7 pm, with Lynn Emanuel and James Tadd Adcox  — online (live only) links at facebook, livestream

Riverstone Bookstore, 5841 Forbes Avenue, April 18, 7 pm, with Jane McCafferty

WANA Live, facebook and You Tube

Order The Gunman and the Carnival

Order The Martyrs, The Lovers or contact me for a surprise