Good morning. It's Wednesday, August 5, and for today's message we turn to the fabulously talented fiction writer Richard Chiem, who will also be the *special guest* at tonight's reading party.
What has he been doing during quarantine? "I've been asking myself questions almost daily, to kind of keep myself in check, and I would like to share those questions with you today—and also a short story," Richard says.
"So, some of those questions: What fight have you been fighting? What have you been training for your whole life? ... How are you using your creativity to save others? How are you saving yourself? ... If your life was a movie, and you took a moment to watch, would you be happy? How are you helping Black lives today?"
And then he reads a short story called "Knife Boy David."
Richard is the author of You Private Person (Sorry House Classics), a book of stories that was named one of Publishers Weekly's "10 Essential Books of the American West."
He is also the author of the novel King of Joy (Soft Skull Press, 2019), which the author Chelsea Martin describes as "a perfect rendering of that feeling of dark and hopeful closeness with loss I’ve always known but could never put to words." It also has an amazing cover. LOOK AT IT!
As mentioned: Richard will be the special guest at the Silent Reading Party tonight!
It starts at 6 pm. You're invited.
Thank you so much for your message and for your reading, Richard.
See you in a few hours!
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Previously in this series:
